Coastal Carolina University President Michael Benson has extended his offer to become West Virginia University’s next president. Registration for 10 years At the state’s flagship university.
Coastal Carolina issued a message to the campus community Friday night a day after West Virginia University announced that the board approved the next president but did not disclose his name until the contract was signed.
Officials at either school have not said whether Benson accepted the offer, but Coastal Carolina said its board has called a committee that will begin searching for Benson’s alternatives.
“We certainly miss President Benson, but I believe that his job, along with the work of the board and university faculty and staff, has placed us for incredible opportunities in the coming days. “It’s done.”
Benson will replace E. Gordonsey, the longest serving president at the Morgantown School, announced During the budget crisis He will retire in August 2023 and June 2025 when his contract expires.
Benson, who turned 60 next Friday, was the president of Coastal Carolina for four years in Conway, South Carolina. He previously served as president of Eastern Kentucky University and Snow College at the University of Southern Utah in Ephraim, Utah, and at the age of 36 he became the youngest university president in the history of the Utah Higher Education System. A professor of history, Benson teaches that he is president at various institutions.
Known as a skilled fundraiser, Benson helps Yuki, which became the country’s first junior college athletic program sponsored by Nike, and Benson has more in five years than the school has had in its past 115 years of history. I’ve collected money. Deseret News. In 2022, Coastal Carolina received its biggest gift, $10 million from Conway Medical Center.
Benson also prioritizes the involvement of citizens with a long history of serving committees and boards, including the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.
A decade ago, in Eastern, Kentucky, a student who was unhappy about the school not being cancelled after Fubuki joked on Social Platform X. Benson appeared an hour later, cleaned the driveway and shared food with the students and his family.
Benson holds degrees from Brigham Young University, Notre Dame, Johns Hopkins and Oxford University in the UK. Benson played varsity basketball at Oxford, where he and current U.S. Senator Booker of New Jersey were teammates.
Like Gee, Benson was born in Utah and is a member of the Latter-day Saint Church of Jesus Christ.
Gee, 81, is in her second stint in West Virginia, which began in 2014.
When Gee announced his retirement, the university addressed a $45 million budget shortfall by increasing tuition fees, reducing around 8% of majors and reducing around 5% of faculty positions. Cuts were criticized As “Draconian and the Devastating” by the American Federation of Teachers,
WVU announced it was in a more stable financial position last summer, when additional bachelor’s degree programs were cut at Beckley and Keether’s satellite campuses.
University enrollment of 26,000 students on all campuses has declined by 17.5% since 2015. The university was also declining due to revenue lost during the pandemic and increased debt liabilities for new construction projects.
Under Benson, the Coastal Carolina registration reached 11,000 for the first time in school history last fall.
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