(WVU President Gordon Gee delivered the following prepared remarks in his annual State of the University address on Monday, Oct. 14.)
Today, after more than a decade as president, I have come to address the state of West Virginia University for a final time.
Endings naturally give rise to reflection. Looking back over my second tenure here, I marvel at what our faculty, staff and students have accomplished, even amid challenges and obstacles.
Surprisingly, though, I find myself reflecting even more about the future of West Virginia University than about the past.
In truth, our present moment is impossible to understand without knowing what came before and what we are currently doing to create a better tomorrow.
As Frederick Douglass said, “We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future.”
The past few years have been especially challenging across higher education, but reinvention has fortified OUR university for the future.
More than ever, we are a fiercely land-grant university. We are a driving force for good, for change and for opportunity for West Virginians.
In 2016, I identified three pillars on which to build our progress: Education, health and prosperity.
I said then, “Only by re-examining and reinventing our work, can we become a catalyst for political, social and economic transformation in West Virginia.”
Five years later, drawing upon the pandemic’s lessons, I announced the adoption of a fourth pillar: Purpose.
I said that as president, “I want to leave behind a University that encourages people to pursue their passions and their purpose. I want to leave behind a University that provides the opportunities to use that purpose to do good in this world.”
And our faculty, staff and students embraced those pillars and strengthened them beyond my highest expectations.
The accomplishments of the past decade are not mine; they belong to each one of you, and in a zeitgeist that elevates problems and obscures solutions, it is important to celebrate your creations.
In 2014, we committed to educating our students beyond traditional classroom hours with Project 168 to wholly educate our students and help them find their place at West Virginia University. 10 years ago, we had only 100 student organizations, and we have over 450 today.
Recognizing the importance of keeping education within reach for more students, the WVU Foundation launched a Dream First campaign that exceeded its goal of $50 million for scholarships. As a result of this effort, West Virginia University has remained one of the most affordable R1 universities in the country. We will soon announce more robust enrollment strategies that will make a West Virginia University degree attainable for more students in West Virginia – an important pinnacle of our land-grant mission. We will also remove the obstacles they often face in pursuit of higher education.
In 2015, we embraced our land-grant calling to promote our state’s heritage for future generations. We laid groundwork for the Humanities Center to position West Virginia University as a leading voice on the value and necessity of humanities education. As we take it to the next stage and grow it into a cultural center, I am pleased that WVU Libraries Dean Karen Diaz and her team will help position it for continued success.
Since then, faculty and students have strengthened humanities research and education in West Virginia, improving the lives of our citizens. And our beautiful Art Museum opened the same year to give the University’s art collection a fitting home for all to visit. We have made it more accessible since that time.
We began building better learning and discovery environments for our students and faculty, which—over the past decade—have included a new Agricultural Sciences Building, an Advanced Engineering Research facility, and Reynolds Hall, the pillar of experiential learning and entrepreneurship that houses the Chambers College of Business and Economics.
We moved WVU Tech to a more accessible and modern campus in Beckley in 2016. This has helped us bring life-changing higher education to more people in southern West Virginia. And through strategic partnerships, WVU Potomac State College in Keyser has built collaborative programs spanning the region. They are appreciated resources in West Virginia and will become increasingly important as we build partnerships throughout the state.
To give our best and brightest students the chance to enhance their learning, we focused on growing our Honors College to nearly double its size from 10 years ago. We now have an Honors program that is the most academically strong and prepared in its history.
We also increased support for students to ensure that most who started college left with their degrees. In 2016, we created more focused staffing for retention. And our work has paid off. Our preliminary freshmen retention rate this year is 83.2%, which is our highest ever, a testament to the dedication and care of our faculty.
Through the difficult but necessary process of Academic Transformation, we have better aligned complementary programs to serve students today and well into the future in new units: the College of Applied Human Sciences, the College of Creative Arts and Media and the Division for Land-Grant Engagement.
Reinvention allows us to bring more focus to programs of vital power to our academic portfolio, including in neurosciences, robotics and cybersecurity – programs that build our workforce and spark innovation into our state and world. In fact, we are now designated as part of a US CYBERCOM National Center of Excellence that will create significant experiential learning opportunities for our faculty and students.
Our education mission transcends our own campuses to help improve learning throughout West Virginia.
WVU Extension launched its TRAIN program to help youth affected by our state’s devastating opioid epidemic. The program helps K-12 teachers and youth camp staff support students affected by addiction.
Our STEAM Technical Assistance Center is committed to helping educators and students fall in love with STEAM experiences so West Virginia’s next generation can hone essential skill sets that will prepare them for college and STEAM-based careers.
Over the last three years, the West Virginia Public Education Collaborative has helped elevate public education across West Virginia through more than $5.9 million in funding through its initiatives and public-private partnerships.
And the proven success of our Health Science Technology Academy has continued to increase. This mentoring program, which helps underserved students succeed in STEM-based college programs, expanded this year with a new summer institute. About 100 high school sophomores and ten teachers from across West Virginia visited WVU Tech over the summer to explore STEM and health science opportunities.
Improving health in West Virginia is another vital pillar of our work, and the past decade’s advances have been breathtaking.
In 2016, Dr. Vinay Badhwar became the first physician in the state to implant a new minimally invasive device for treatment of a leaking mitral valve. He was also elected as the President of the Society of Vascular Surgeons, bringing great recognition to our state.
Across the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute, we have recruited top cardiac experts to serve a state population with high rates of heart disease. In 2019, West Virginia’s first heart transplant program launched at the Institute.
We welcomed Dr. Ali Rezai to our University in 2018 to lead the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute. Since then, his team has been elevating West Virginia University’s research stature and demonstrating our land-grant commitment to improving lives. We lead the world in Alzheimer’s research, which was celebrated earlier this year in the 60 Minutes segment that I know many of you watched.
The team earned national attention for its first-in-the-U.S. clinical trial using deep brain stimulation for treatment-resistant opioid use disorder.
During the 2020 pandemic, our health research faculty, health care leaders and providers helped the entire state survive an unprecedent crisis.
Our WVU experts, including Dr. Clay Marsh, our Health Sciences Chancellor and Executive Dean, General Jim Hoyer, Vice President for Economic Innovation, Dr. Brad Price, chair of Management Information Systems and Supply Chain in the Chambers College, and Dr. Lisa Costello in Pediatrics, championed our state through the pandemic with groundbreaking research and a commitment to doing what was right for the health of our citizenry.
Every year, cancer takes a heavy toll on West Virginians. In 2021, we launched LUCAS,
a mobile lung cancer screening unit that travels our country roads along with Bonnie’s
Bus, which screens for breast cancer. We have saved numerous lives in West Virginia
through these important efforts.
More recently, our efforts to reimagine and expand cancer care received a $50 million
boost as Gov. Jim Justice pledged state surplus funding that will support investment
to attain National Cancer Institute Designation—a first for West Virginia.
And this spring, a transformational gift of $50 million from the Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust began work toward a new, comprehensive cancer hospital in Morgantown.
Our goal is to place the WVU Cancer Institute in the top 2% of cancer centers nationwide, which will improve the health and wellness of the people in our state.
Thanks to Albert Wright and his leadership of WVU Medicine, we are working to ensure every West Virginian has access to world-class healthcare. We have now acquired 25 hospitals throughout the state, which means that no West Virginian needs to leave West Virginia to receive the best care possible. This includes the children of our state, who are receiving incredible care at WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital.
Through our third pillar, we have worked to nurture resiliency and reposition our state for broad-based prosperity.
We blazed a path called West Virginia Forward with three goals: to reinforce the foundation that supports economic growth, including our infrastructure, talent base and business climate; to identify potential sectors in which West Virginia can grow to diversify our economy; and to help partners around the state navigate these new pathways toward our shared destination: A prosperous West Virginia.
In 2015, we launched the Marcellus Shale Energy and Environmental Laboratory—or MSEEL—in partnership with Northeast Natural Energy, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, and Ohio State University.
MSEEL was the first long-term, comprehensive field study of shale gas resources, which are so important to West Virginia and the nation.
In 2021, after the pandemic made working from home a viable option, Ascend West Virginia beckoned professionals from around the country to make their home here. It has grown into the nation’s premiere talent attraction and retention program.
Meanwhile, our researchers continued to break ground—sometime literally—on areas vital to our economy.
With a pioneering method to extract and separate rare earth elements and critical minerals from acid mine drainage and coal waste, our scholars—led by Paul Ziemkiewicz—received an $8 million federal grant to help design, build and operate a pre-commercial demonstration facility for separating and refining rare earth elements and critical minerals. Our commercialization and national security teams are also critical in this effort, and they are partnering with the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy to solve a significant national security challenge.
Rare earth element technologies, which power everything from smartphones to the nation’s missile guidance system, could serve as a game changer for the environment and the domestic economy.
Our state has also become one of seven regional hydrogen hubs. This project will receive nearly $1 billion in federal funding thanks to the work of the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen team, which was driven by members from our University. This investment will have a significant economic impact on communities in our region and our state, creating thousands of new jobs.
With these accomplishments, it is no surprise that the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities named us an Innovation and Economic Prosperity University last year.
Our fourth pillar is purpose. I have come to see purpose as the driving force of my life.
To help today’s young people reach their destinations, we created a Purpose Center on our campus in 2022. We have always had many resources to guide students, but previously, it could be confusing to find them all.
The Purpose Center is a personal concierge for our students and other community members to access the guidance they need—from tutoring to mental health to career support and our alumni network. This has been a key recruitment tool and differentiator for our great University.
In one year, we had more than 15,000 students, faculty, staff and parents engage with it.
Additionally, the Purpose Center developed the path for us to become the ONLY fully CliftonStrengths-based university.
But talking about purpose cannot capture the excitement that comes from feeling it. And, today, Mountaineers are feeling and following our spirit of purpose like never before.
When harsh winds blow, our institution—like our mountains—can weather them.
The past decade has thrown many challenges our way, and we have faced them head on.
When bureaucracy strangled our efficiency, we worked together to bust it. And we will continue to do so.
When a tragedy took place in 2014, we pledged change, and reformed Greek Life to become a national model.
When floods ravaged West Virginia two years later, we all pitched in to help our fellow citizens recover.
When a pandemic paralyzed the globe, we gave of ourselves to forge a path forward.
When our needs grew, we launched the State of Minds campaign and worked together to raise more than $1.2 billion for scholarships, professorships, facilities and research. Our most recent Day of Giving once again broke records thanks to the generous support of alumni and friends.
When the headwinds of change threatened to take us off course, we made difficult decisions and transformed academics to meet students’ needs for today and tomorrow.
Through it all, we have positioned West Virginia University for the future.
And we have done it thanks to our incredible people.
People like Duncan Lorimer and Maura McLaughlin, internationally renowned astrophysicists who last year received the Shaw Prize, described as the Nobel Prize of the East.
Drs. Lorimer and McLaughlin, both professors in physics and astronomy, helped to discover fast radio bursts — intense, unexplained pulses of energy, coming from billions of light years away. Since they discovered the first one in 2007, several thousand more have been spotted.
Scientists like these helped West Virginia University earn and maintain Research 1 status—perhaps my biggest source of pride over the past decade.
We have a wonderfully dedicated staff like Christopher Martin a maintenance worker in Auxiliary Operations who has been with the University for more than 20 years.
He was recently recognized as one of the outstanding members of our University community. He, and so many other classified and non-classified staff, work every day to ensure our campus is welcoming and running smoothly.
And I am so proud of our amazing students like Easton Cahill from Bridgeport, one of three Mountaineers to win a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship this year.
Easton got his first taste of college-level research as part of the WVU Summer Immersion Experience with the First2 Network. The program offered a residential STEM research experience for first-generation and underrepresented first-year students from rural areas.
After completing his undergraduate degree in the School of Medicine, Easton plans to enroll in a dual medical and doctoral degree program, focusing on biochemistry and molecular medicine.
Reflecting on his journey, he said: “Having my own moment of understanding about what it means to have vision and to not have vision is very scary. I think this kind of research is very important and it’s all part of my story of why I want to do this.”
Each one of us should reflect on our own West Virginia University journey in the same way.
Why are you here? What unique aspects of community are helping you fulfill your purpose?
For me, the answers are clear. They took shape most profoundly on my annual statewide summer tours.
I have visited Extension offices, enjoyed the excitement of 4-H camp, and got as close as I was willing to many farm animals. I have met community leaders and business owners, teachers and students, doctors and patients.
Along the way, my respect for our Mountaineer family has continued to grow.
Each of you is carrying on the tradition that Abraham Lincoln started when he signed land-grant universities into being—using knowledge to advance the common good and improve people’s lives.
Likewise, my purpose has been to make things better for West Virginians and to build a University with the strength and power to succeed long after I am gone.
This is just the beginning. West Virginia University is built to last. And we will continue to grow and prosper as we create endless possibilities for our students and the citizens of West Virginia.