MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia University Board of Governors has approved the selling of bonds for university projects.
The approval came at Friday’s BOG meeting in Morgantown.
WVU Associate Vice President for Finance and Treasury David Kosslow said one of the bonds will be phase 3 & 4 of campus modernization. The program is an overall effort to modernize facilities campus-wide.
“A 20-year term bond, taxable,” Kosslow said. “It will be $40 million; the annual debt service will be $3.3 million with an anticipated interest rate of 5.37 percent.”
BOG members also approved a $40 million bond to fund improvements to the steam plant system. A third bond with a 30-year term was approved that Kosslow said will be supported by current project-related revenues and not institutional funding. The portion of the bond that will be tax-exempt will be determined by the percentage of square footage devoted to private use.
“There’s an additional 2026 bond project that we expect to be a 30-year term that will most likely be split between tax-exempt and taxable bonds; the analysis is underway,” Kosslow said. “The financial information was discussed in executive session.”
The BOG spent about three hours in executive session Friday.
WVU President Michael T. Benson said he expects the university to get a good interest rate on the bond market. Benson told the BOG the financial standing of the university is strong. Benson said WVU was rated AA- by Fitch Ratings, meaning very strong capacity for payment of financial commitments, and Aa3 from Moody’s for high quality and very low credit risk.
New CFO introduced
Benson introduced Chris Kabourek as WVU’s new vice president and chief financial officer. Kabourek brings nearly three decades of fiscal experience to Morgantown and most recently served as the senior vice president for administration and planning at The Ohio State University. There, he led one of the university’s largest administrative portfolios, spanning public safety, information technology, campus planning, facilities, real estate, and major capital projects.
A Nebraska native, he told the BOG the Cornhuskers and Mountaineers have a few important common traits.
“They use common sense, they work super hard, they have high expectations, hold themselves accountable, and get some things done,” Kabourec said.
Benson welcomed Kabourek and turned his attention to the next addition to his management team—the vice president of research. WVU Provost Beverly Wendland is leading that search committee, Benson said.
“This is a really important hire, and yesterday we met with Albert Wright and Dr. Hannah Hazard Jenkins,” Benson said. “And to a person, everybody in Health Sciences and on main campus knows how important this position will be.”
Student government
The student government team of president Colin Street and vice president Rozaireo Jones were recently reelected and have returned with the same cabinet. They told the BOG they have revived the Hardesty Festival of Ideas and they plan to extend it into a podcast for increased student outreach.
“The podcast would primarily spotlight campus internship opportunities and faculty research, which I think is particularly important and timely right now,” Jones said.