Latest news with #GordonGee
Dominion Post
28-06-2025
- Politics
- Dominion Post
Tie a bow on it: Gee closing out 44 years as a college president
MORGANTOWN — It's a scorching Tuesday afternoon in late June and the Mountainlair is vibrating with the kind of anxious energy reserved for those on the verge of what's next. Wide-eyed moms and dads struggle to keep pace as incoming WVU students bounce from table to table, sorting out the details that will soon become their daily lives – housing, meals, classes, extracurriculars. A few hundred feet away in Stewart Hall, a different kind of orientation is taking place. Far less frenetic. Far more reflective. 'We're moving out of the presidential residence today,' West Virginia University President Gordon Gee says, sounding slightly worse for the wear. 'Let me tell you, I've collected too much stuff. That's what I've done, as a matter of fact.' Now 81, Gee is as he's always been — a caricaturist's Mona Lisa — all ears and glasses and bowtie and smile. But his signature look, public persona and familiar, aww-shucks manner have long belied both his stature as a stalwart of modern academia and his proven willingness to rock the boat, come what may. He's the only person to have served as president of five universities, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that he helmed two of those institutions — WVU and Ohio State University — twice. He's conferred some 335,000 degrees, likely served as the grinning centerpiece in a similar number of student selfies and impromptu group shots, and extracted the full measure of untold Diet Dr. Peppers. He's also built a reputation as a leader who demands the best from those around him, raises big money and leaves an indelible mark on the universities he champions. On this day, however, he's packing — making way for Michael Benson, who will become WVU's 27th president when he steps into office on July 15. Sitting at a makeshift work station in the conference room that abuts his now-empty office, Gee shrugs, grins, and approaches the end of an improbable 45-year run with the resigned gratitude of a survivor. Much like the incoming freshmen next door, he, too, is on the verge of what's next. 'You know, I tell everyone I'm 36 between the ears, but I'm 81 between my ankles and elbows and my knees and my hips. So sometimes, if you can't run the university at the level you want to in terms of the energy you want to, then it's time to recognize that your time has come.' From Utah to Almost Heaven The biography of Gordon Gee is as impressive as it is publicly available, and it doesn't need a detailed retelling here. Hailing from Vernal, Utah, Gee distinguished himself early, achieving the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. He turned an undergraduate degree from the University of Utah into Ivy League credentials, earning both a law degree and doctorate in education from Columbia University. He was selected to clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, after which he launched his academic career at Brigham Young University. Then West Virginia came calling. In his mid-30s in 1979, Gee was hired as the dean for the WVU College of Law — a job he admits he likely wasn't ready for. He'd barely had time to settle in before the board of governors eyed him for an unexpected promotion. In 1981 he became one of, if not the, youngest university presidents in America. 'I arrived as dean of the law school, and so I was only dean for two years, and then I became president of the university. So, you know, I tell the story that I was very unprepared for being university president. I was probably unprepared for being the dean of the law school. I was very, very young. I was 36,' Gee said. 'It was a smaller, more regional institution at that time, but it certainly had the land-grant tradition. We did a lot at that time to really focus on the land-grant mission of the institution.' The early days of Gee's presidency were spent leaning heavily into building the university's science and engineering offerings, and both separating and expanding its agricultural and extension presence statewide. Hospital self-help While Gee's first term at WVU was somewhat brief — July 1981 to June 1985 — it was during this time that he spearheaded what may be his most lasting legacy — WVU Medicine. It all started with mechanical issues in the old University Hospital. 'In 1983, we had very serious problems. We had soot blowing out of our operating suites and we realized there were serious problems with that old building. I didn't want to go to the state because I'd been forewarned that if I went to the state to ask for relief, they would move the medical center to was at the height of that kind of tension between Morgantown and Charleston. So, we created this not-for-profit university corporation called WVU Medicine,' he said. 'During that time, I raised the money for Ruby Memorial Hospital. It was not built during my time, but it was started during my time.' Today, the West Virginia University Health System, branded WVU Medicine, includes five institutes and dozens of hospitals and clinics reaching all corners of West Virginia and into neighboring states. It's West Virginia's largest employer and generates revenues well into the billions annually. Most importantly, Gee said, it allows West Virginians to receive the kind of care that once took them far from home. 'It's grown and thrived and become, really, one of the great assets of the state. Clearly, delivering health care to every citizen now without them having to leave – making sure their children have access to great health care – it's just so important. If you want to call it a legacy …' Gee says, pausing, 'Certainly, I say it's a great result of a number of things that we've been doing.' There and back again It's not all that common to be hired and retire from the same place. Unheard of, really, for university presidents these days. That's the case for Gee and WVU, at least in terms of his 44 years as a chief executive. The twist in this tale is that most of that time was spent somewhere else – Colorado, Ohio State, Brown, Vanderbilt and Ohio State again. In January 2014, Gee returned to Morgantown to serve as WVU's interim president while the board of governors sought a permanent replacement for the departing Jim Clements. Three months later, the qualifier was removed despite the BOG initially explaining the interim president would not be considered for the permanent post. The vote was unanimous. Gee was 70 years old when he returned to Blaney House, and WVU had grown from that small, regional institution 30 years earlier to a national and international player on the academic stage; well on its way to earning an R1 designation as one of the nation's top research institutions. The school officially achieved the designation in 2016 and has maintained it since – a point of great pride for Gee. He can rattle off a near-unending list of programs, individuals, achievements and goals that define the university as it stands today. But perhaps more than anything, Gee's second term in office will be defined, right or wrong, by a global pandemic and the academic restructuring that followed. 'First of all, I think that we would all agree that just shutting everything down absolutely tightly was a mistake. We could have had much more flexibility than we had,' he said when asked what universities should learn from COVID-19. 'I think that would have made a real difference for our young people.' Gee places significant blame for the meteoric rise in mental health issues among college-age Americans on the forced isolation of the COVID response. The result, he said, is a generation that's both uber-connected in terms of technology and lonely in terms of genuine human connection. 'The mental health challenges of these young people are really quite extraordinary. Maybe about 65% or so of them have mental health challenges, whereas 10 years ago, 15 years ago, it was 5%,' he said. Unlike the COVID response, which was largely out of WVU's hands, the decisions made in response to the university's $45 million budget deficit in fiscal year 2024 landed squarely on the doorstep of Stewart Hall. Significant cuts to programs, majors, faculty and staff resulted in protests and a September 2023 vote of 'no confidence' in Gee from the WVU faculty. Looking back, Gee said the decisions were necessary. 'I was on a call today with the Educational Advisory Board with about 50 university presidents. I made the point that for too long universities have tended to kick the ball down the road, and now the whole thing is coming home to roost,' he said. 'We did not do that. We had only a $45 million budget deficit, but we made some important decisions. Yes, they were difficult, but more importantly, they were critical to the future of the institution. Now, we're one of the more financially stable institutions in the country, which means we can grow, we can invest and we can do the kind of things that we want to be able to do, whereas others are really struggling at the moment.' At the crossroads While Gee readily admits that he just can't do the job with the same boundless energy that became as much his calling card as bow ties and technicolor socks, he's also quick to point out the job requires more energy than ever. 'When I became the university president, it was, you know, a fairly discreet way to run an institution. You had faculty, you had staff, you had students, you had alumni and friends, and you were pretty sanguine about keeping all those constituents in place, and, obviously, there was the legislature,' Gee said. 'But you fast-forward four decades, it's really hand-to-hand combat out there. There's so many headwinds facing higher education – costs, quality, demographic cliffs, the political environment in which we operate, with much more aggressive relationships between universities and their state legislatures.' Gee said universities are at a crossroads. He's long noted public faith in higher education is on a steady and prolonged decline. That slide is colliding with the ever-evolving technological revolution promised by artificial intelligence. The result, he continued, is a shift to a physical economy in which emphasis is reverting back to the kind of hands-on skilled trades that can't yet be performed by AI and don't necessarily require the validation of higher education. 'My fear is the fact that we are so embedded in the way we've done things for so long that we will not have either the courage or the ability to change. That is a great fear for me,' he says when asked if he fears for the future of higher education. 'On the other hand, if we accept the challenge of change, the reinvention, the reimagination of universities, I have no fear whatsoever. It's really not based upon whether we can create a new opportunity for education. It's whether we have the will to be able to do so.' Will he stay or will he go? 'West Virginia is my home.' Gee jumps in before the question is fully formed. 'We own a home at the Greenbrier and we own a condominium here, and this will be our home,' he continues. 'We'll have more time to relax, more time to do some different kinds of things but we'll continue to be very meaningfully involved in the lives of the university — particularly on the economic development side and the relationship side with state government.' Gee said his kinship with West Virginia — fueled by the state's natural beauty and the mix of kindness and ready determination within its people — began the moment he arrived in Almost Heaven back in 1979. It became an unbreakable bond in 2014, when the former president turned interim president was faced with a decision. 'I always tell the story, when I called Rebecca, my daughter, and said 'Rebecca, they asked me to stay on, what should I do?' She said, 'Go home, Dad.''
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
WVU Board of Governors backs Hutson in split leadership vote
Jun. 13—MORGANTOWN — If it was a power grab — as one outgoing member suggested — it was a successful one. In Gordon Gee's final meeting as the school's president, the West Virginia University Board of Governors voted 9-6 Friday to select Robert "Rusty " Hutson Jr. as the body's next chairman, effective July 1. Hutson, who joined the BOG in September after being appointed by former Gov. Jim Justice, was selected over sitting Chairman Richard Pill. The co-founder and CEO of Diversified Energy Company, Hutson is a former chairman of the Fairmont State University Board of Governors. His selection ran counter to the recommendation of the BOG's nominating committee, which tapped Pill, Vice-Chair Patrice Harris and Secretary Robert Reynolds to keep those positions for the coming year. Following the vote for chairman, Harris declined the nomination for vice-chair and nominated Reynolds, who was unanimously approved. After Charles Capito and Susan Lavenski refused nominations for secretary, Paul Mattox accepted and was approved by the body. Mattox, a former state transportation secretary, was reappointed to a newly created seat on the BOG by Gov. Patrick Morrisey in May after his previous seat was eliminated by legislation. The selection of BOG leadership occurred in the first meeting since the West Virginia Legislature stripped faculty, staff and student representatives of voting power. Based on comments offered during the meeting, all four backed the Pill, Harris, Reynolds leadership team. While the discourse remained civil, there was an undertone of friction throughout the meeting as seemingly innocuous comments about "transparency " and "honor " landed as clear references to the recent public infighting surrounding, among other things, the process for selecting the university's next president. Frances "Frankie " Tack, attending her final meeting as a faculty representative, offered the most pointed remarks, explaining that the BOG has "weathered an array of dysfunctional practices " in the past year. She predicted those practices would continue Friday, explaining it was "unprecedented " for the body to not follow the recommendation of the nominating committee when selecting leadership. Further, Tack said the body traditionally promotes leadership — from secretary, to vice-chair to chair — from among experienced members for the sake of continuity. "So what's changed in the 2024-2025 year ? In a word, membership, " she said, later adding, "If there are attempts to nominate officers other than those the BOG members of the nominating committee have vetted and voted to bring forward to this board, you will know a power grab is being attempted ... " Hutson later countered that his interest in leading the body shouldn't be viewed as an indictment of Pill's leadership. "It's about whether I feel like I can add value to a very challenging time moving forward, that my skill set may be different than what Rick's is. It has nothing to do with whether I think Rick's done the best job or I could do the best job, " he said. "It has to do with the way I feel like the board can be managed going forward — and the challenges, and the issues that I believe are going to be on the horizon. That's all it's about." Almost lost in the proceedings was the fact the meeting was the last in Gee's tenure. He'll leave the university on July 14. Incoming President Michael T. Benson starts the following day. Pill was overcome with emotion in expressing his gratitude for Gee's efforts at WVU. In his final president's report — which took place prior to the selection of leadership — Gee spoke glowingly of Pill, Harris and Reynolds, and cautioned the body against allowing division to fester within the board, particularly in a time when the public regard for higher education is on shaky ground. "I make a plea to all of you today to think about the fact that the university is more important than you. You have individual interests, but the university is more important than any one person. The university is certainly more important than me, " he said.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How to save higher ed, according to Gordon Gee
MORGANTOWN, — Gordon Gee owns somewhere around 2,000 bow ties. About half are 'in retirement,' gradually being repurposed into quilts for his granddaughters. A couple dozen or so hang in his office at West Virginia University, where he's served as president for the past 11 years. The designs in his collection range from traditional to whimsical — classic stripes and polka dots to flamingos, Santa Claus heads, hearts and flip-flops. Ever since encountering his first bow tie in a doctor's office as a teenager in Vernal, Utah, the accessory has become his signature: a symbol of delight, abundance and a refusal to blend in. It's as eclectic as his leadership style, which has won him both admirers and skeptics throughout his 45-year career in higher education. On the day I met Gee in his office, the campus was winding down for the summer and he was preparing for his final commencement, capping the close of his second tenure leading WVU. He arrived a few minutes late, delayed by sorting through decades of belongings as he prepared to vacate the presidential residence on campus in June. He was gearing up for graduation festivities and dressed for the part: a bow tie emblazoned with the university logo, a yellow vest and blue-and-yellow socks peeking out beneath his trousers. West Virginia is where Gee's career as a university president started when, at 36 years old, he was appointed president. Now, after a 45-year journey leading five major universities — two of them twice — 81-year-old Gee is ending his career where it began. He is one of the most significant — and colorful — figures in modern American higher education. Over four decades, he's led more universities than any other person in U.S. history: the University of Colorado, Brown University and Vanderbilt University, as well as two stints as president of WVU and Ohio State. An ardent champion of public education, he pushed for ambitious changes in each school, raising billions and transforming the universities' structure, governance and athletics. But this charismatic, bow-tied man rarely managed to avoid causing a stir. Most recently, Gee led West Virginia through a sweeping and contentious 'Academic Transformation' in response to a deepening budget crisis and falling enrollment after the pandemic. The overhaul resulted in the elimination of 28 academic programs and about 300 jobs, including faculty and library positions, changes Gee believed were necessary to keep the institution financially viable. The changes drew national attention and sparked fierce protests from students and faculty. Gee recalled waving at them from his office window as demonstrators gathered outside his office in Stewart Hall. Despite the backlash, Gee says his decisions were guided by a central question: Was West Virginia University truly serving its students and the people of West Virginia? 'I think what we did is we reinvented the university — we repositioned it,' he told me. As he prepares to step down, Gee believes he is leaving the institution on 'solid financial footing,' with its bond rating reaffirmed. The new president, Michael Benson, who is leaving a job as president of Coastal Carolina University, is set to take the helm in July. At a time when public trust in higher education is eroding, intensified by the Trump administration's scrutiny of Ivy League schools, Gee believes universities are in the midst of an existential reckoning. The way forward, he believes, is through bold, student-centered change. 'Higher education has been in the same model for so many years,' Gee said. 'The reality is this: we either change as institutions — or we die.' Gee's office inside a Romanesque building on campus resembles an eclectic museum of curiosities. On his desk are a smattering of coins and pins — keepsakes collected from people he met over the years. He works at a hefty wooden desk with hand-carved features, his own 'resolute desk,' a nod to the storied Oval Office original. When he leaves WVU, the desk will go with him. Above it hangs an expansive landscape of Morgantown, painted by a WVU graduate. Gee calls himself an 'accidental president' when reflecting on how he came to the job that became his life's work. In 1981, while serving as dean of the law school at West Virginia, he had a call with the board of governors about the possibility of becoming president. Before hearing back from the board, he spotted the front page of The Dominion Post, a local newspaper, and saw a headline announcing he would be the university's next president. The formal offer came soon after. 'It was something that would not happen in today's world,' Gee told me. 'It was highly unusual, very West Virginia.' Gee may have aspired to a presidency someday, but the promotion came far sooner than expected, said John Fisher, a member of the dean search committee who later became Gee's chief of staff. 'I think people feel very comfortable with Gordon in a very short period of time,' Fisher said. A hallmark of Gee's leadership is that people don't work for him, but with him, he added. Gee was 36 when he stepped into the role. There was no playbook for being a university president, he told me, and he faced a steep learning curve. One of his first tasks was understanding the university's mission as a land-grant institution — part of a national system established under the 1862 Morrill Act to deliver practical education in agriculture, engineering and the sciences. In a state that ranks among the poorest and least educated in the country, Gee came to see the university's mission as inseparable from his own: to spur economic growth, expand health care and bring opportunity to every county of West Virginia. He's gearing up for his last tour of all 55 counties in the state, his annual summer tradition. 'The advantage and the disadvantage of this university is the fact that it is so tied to the future of this state,' Gee told me. 'It represents the hopes and dreams of all West Virginians.' Gee learned how to be a university president by trying things others hadn't. Early on, when he became aware of dust blowing from the air vents in the operating room of the state-owned and outdated university hospital, he knew changes had to be made. Though he had no background in health care, he understood the political risks: If the state Legislature funded a new hospital, they might relocate it to Charleston. So Gee proposed an unorthodox solution — creating a nonprofit public university corporation. He persuaded the West Virginia Legislature to separate the hospital from the university, paving the way for the school to ultimately take ownership of the hospital and build a new facility. The result grew into WVU Medicine, a sprawling system of 25 hospitals. 'We wanted to make certain that no one in West Virginia had to leave the state to get health care.' He later applied the same model at the University of Colorado. Gee's sense of purpose came through leading public universities — at Colorado, then at Ohio State, and ultimately back at West Virginia, where he had the longest tenure. Institutions hired him to shake things up, he told me. 'I made a living on being very disruptive,' he said. At Ohio State, he introduced selective admissions to what had been an open-access institution — a controversial move, particularly in rural parts of the state. Gee said many parents viewed him as 'the devil incarnate' for limiting access. But he believed the old model was failing students and families: Tuition was spent on students who weren't committed, and many would leave without graduating. He also undertook a major academic reorganization, consolidating five arts and sciences colleges — a task he likened to 'moving a graveyard' — and shifted the school from a quarter to a semester calendar. Public universities were more open to change than elite private ones, he found. At Brown University, where Gee served as president for three years starting in 1998 — his shortest stint — his attempts at reform quickly clashed with tradition. 'They wanted to remain a wonderful Ivy League institution, and when I started the disruption, I could tell that it was going to be hand-to-hand combat,' he said. After Brown, he became chancellor of Vanderbilt University, where he eliminated the athletic department and consolidated several programs — part of a broader effort across his career to streamline operations and cut bureaucratic redundancy. Gee believes higher education has grown 'isolated' and 'arrogant.' He points to the ongoing maelstrom at Harvard University. While he disagrees with the Trump administration's 'sledgehammer to a problem' approach, he's unequivocal about one belief: To regain public trust, universities must commit to self-examination and meaningful change. Instead of acting as 'architects of change,' universities have become victims of their own inaction, Gee said — unwilling to address thorny issues like free speech, open inquiry and cultural change. Now, he said, those problems are catching up with them. 'We need to make sure we're constantly asking the right question of how we make the institution better,' Gee told me. 'And how do we do it in ways that make common sense for the public that supports us?' Gee's disruptive streak — and his affinity for rural communities — took root in his upbringing in Vernal, Utah, a small town that didn't yet have a movie theater or television when he was growing up. His family owned an oil business that was started by his grandfather, along with several car dealerships and the only bank in town. For a time, all signs pointed to Gee becoming a third-generation banker. But eventually, the family sold the bank. Gee's childhood revolved around The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Boy Scouts and 4-H. His family emphasized the value of education. His mother was a schoolteacher, and Gee became a voracious reader and a regular at the local library. He served as student body president in both elementary and high school, graduating as valedictorian. 'I was the guy that everyone loved to hate,' Gee told me. At the University of Utah, where he studied history, Gee's path took a decisive turn. Although Gee initially considered a medical career, his plans shifted after meeting Neal A. Maxwell, a prominent educator and future member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Maxwell became a close mentor and friend, encouraging Gee to consider law as a route to leadership in higher education. Even in college, Gee's ability to work the room and befriend others stood out. 'He liked practical jokes, often on himself as well as anyone else,' recalled Cecil Samuelson, the former president of Brigham Young University who belonged to the same fraternity as Gee at the University of Utah. 'He was comfortable in his own skin, and he always wore a bow tie,' Samuelson said. After serving a mission in Bavaria, Germany, Gee earned both a law degree and a doctorate in education from Columbia University, completing both in four and a half years. He went on to clerk for a federal judge before becoming a judicial fellow and staff assistant to Chief Justice Warren Burger, a conservative on the Supreme Court who had been nominated by Richard Nixon. Gee later returned to Utah, where he joined the J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU as a professor and associate dean before moving to West Virginia to become the dean of the law school and within two years, a university president. In 2006, Samuelson invited Gee to give a speech at the BYU Forum. 'Everything I know about being a Latter-day Saint, I've learned from running universities,' Gee said in the address. 'If you think this is a popularity contest, you're in the wrong business.' Gordon Gee While he was cognizant of politics, he managed to stay above the fray. 'He was not viewed as a political figure,' Fisher said, but as a president 'working to try to make the university the best it could be.' Throughout his career, Gee became known for his fundraising prowess — or 'friend-raising,' as he calls it. During his tenure, the West Virginia University Foundation raised record-breaking funds — in the last fiscal year, it brought in more than $282 million, the most ever in the foundation's 70-year history. He's viewed his presidency more as vocation, not a job — even a kind of ministry. Nearly every night, he spends two to three hours writing notes and emails to people he has met that week. Benson, who will succeed Gee on July 15, told me he's gotten a note from Gee after every single interaction and meeting he's had with him. 'He does it in genuine ways,' Benson said. 'Gordon has a unique trait to make everyone feel important.' Although Gee and Benson had known each other, Gee didn't know that Benson had applied for the job. 'He's going to be a great president,' he said. Sure enough, the day after I met Gee, I received an email from him, which said: 'As you can tell, the university presidency is a wonderful world in which to live but it is also very intense.' I asked Gee what it was like, personally, to watch his university community reeling from the upheaval that followed the announcement of layoffs and program cuts which included language programs. The experience, he said, was painful. 'If I didn't grieve for them, then I obviously wouldn't have a sense of human kindness in me,' he said. 'But I believed in the higher purpose.' In 2023, the university faculty voted no confidence in Gee, a move which is largely symbolic. While the the Board of Governors backed Gee, the faculty resolution accused Gee of financial mismanagement and failure to protect the academic integrity and mission of the institution. He anticipated the fallout, Gee said, and had calibrated the process and its timing: In 2023, he first announced his retirement, and shortly after, rolled out the sweeping academic cuts to address a $45 million budget shortfall or a structural deficit, which is a more accurate term, according to Gee. 'We determined that we were going to be very transparent, which is very difficult,' he said. 'Universities are very opaque institutions.' He believes that the cuts were essential for the long-term stability of the institution — and for preserving future jobs. 'There are many people now who have jobs who would not have had jobs had we not made those decisions,' he said. Gee stands by the choices he made: 'I believe that people of good will, if they had the same information that I have, would make the same decision.' Over the years, Gee has grown accustomed to criticism — from scrutiny over what some considered lavish spending at Vanderbilt to offhand remarks about Roman Catholics and questions over his administrative decisions. But Gee, whose self-effacing nature seems to make him only more relatable, is quick to admit his mistakes. 'Sometimes there was legitimate criticism,' he acknowledged. 'You always learn from those kinds of things.' Without thick skin and 'nerves like sewer pipes,' a university president doesn't stand a chance, he told me. 'If you think this is a popularity contest, you're in the wrong business,' he said. Samuelson told me one of the biggest challenges of being a university president is earning the trust of diverse constituencies — faculty, students, donors. 'And I think that's one of the things about Gordon Gee. People would say: 'Maybe we didn't always agree with him, but we felt he was fair and trustworthy. We could count on him to do what he said he would do.'' I asked Gee what accomplishment he was most proud of throughout the span of his career. 'After 45 years, the fact that I survived,' he joked. Then, in a more serious tone, he spoke about building a robust, high-quality health system in West Virginia that now serves about 90% of the state's residents and includes facilities like a new children's hospital and a planned cancer center. 'I came to realize very early on that without a healthy population, we can't do any of the other things,' he said. As we stepped out of the historic Stewart Hall, the college's film crew was waiting outside for Gee, ready to film his farewell message to the graduates, who were mingling for various end-of-year festivities. He then floated from one picnic table to another, chatting with students about their highlights at West Virginia and their plans after graduation. It was already 80 degrees and wasn't yet summer, but Gee didn't seem fazed. 'It's time to sit by the pool,' one woman told Gee. 'Sit by the pool?' Gee responded as if such a thing was utterly inconceivable. 'Not a fat chance. I'll do something.' After losing his first wife to cancer and his second to divorce, he's now engaged to be married again. In May he told graduating seniors, 'my best days lie ahead.' Gee hasn't committed to the next project — he's considering several possibilities, all of which would keep him in West Virginia. Before we said goodbye, I asked Gee where his audacity comes from. Some of it, he said, came with age. He couldn't have imagined carrying out the changes at West Virginia as a 36-year-old president. He would have been too worried about public perception, he said. Not anymore. What changed? He paused before answering. 'I wish I knew. It's in my DNA,' he said. 'I have no fear.'
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
WVU Commencement kicks off for Class of 2025
MORGANTOWN, (WBOY) — Friday marked the beginning of a new chapter for West Virginia University's graduating class of 2025, as commencement began. The College of Law was the first class to graduate, holding its ceremony at 9:00 am. The Schools of Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health and Dentistry followed, alongside the Masters and Doctorate programs in WVU's School of Medicine. Right at Home hosts graduation in Morgantown for latest round of CNAs This class of students is also the last to be under WVU President Gordon E. Gee, after he announced his intent to retire in August 2023. He'll be replaced by former Coastal Carolina University President Michael Benson, who starts this summer. Commencements will continue on both Saturday, May 17 and Sunday, May 18. You can find a full schedule of those ceremonies and links to livestream the events on WVU's website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
