Tuition and fees for resident and nonresident students at West Virginia University will increase in the 2025 academic year following approval at Friday's Board of Trustees meeting.
Tuition and fees for resident undergraduate students will increase by $228 per semester, while tuition and fees for nonresident undergraduate students will increase by $624, according to Finance Committee Chairman Kevin Craig.
Tuition for resident graduate students will increase by $252 per semester, and tuition and fees for nonresident graduate students will increase by $639 per semester. Student financial aid will increase in line with these increases.
Special Governance Committee Chair Patrice Harris introduced the final presidential search committee, which will help the Board of Trustees select a new university president after President E. Gordon Gee retires in spring 2025.
The committee is made up of 18 members, including four representatives from the Board of Trustees, three faculty members, one student member and one representative from each of WVU's classified employees (Deans, WVU Athletics, WVU Medical, WVU Foundation and Alumni Association).
The committee will also include one regional campus representative and three university-wide representatives, including one member of the Higher Education Policy Committee and two board of trustees chairs, Harris said.
Melody Rose, president of Wittkieffer, the search firm hired by West Virginia University to assist with the president selection process, spoke about the next steps in the search process.
University stakeholders will have the opportunity to participate in listening sessions and campus- and community-wide surveys between July and September.
Rose said the search committee will use feedback from surveys and listening sessions to develop leadership profiles to distribute to candidates.
Dates and times for the sessions have yet to be announced, but they will be held both in-person and remotely.
Rose said the university plans to begin recruiting candidates for the president position in September, once the position is officially announced.
The search committee will interview candidates throughout the fall semester before being evaluated by Wittkiefer in the spring semester.
The board will conduct final interviews with candidates and plan to select a new leader in the spring of 2025. The new president is expected to be in place by July 1, 2025, Rose said.
The Board also approved the Chancellor’s Search Committee Duties and the Chancellor’s Search Committee Confidentiality Agreement and Code of Conduct, which detail the responsibilities and requirements of participating search committee members.
Additional information about the presidential search process is available at presidentialsearch.wvu.edu.
During her report, President Mary Ann Reed shared an update on the search process for a new president at West Virginia University Potomac State College.
Reid said the application process will open June 7, with administrators aiming to appoint a new provost by January.
Reed also provided information about the merger of Reed College’s School of Media and Creative Arts with Davis College’s School of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design and West Virginia University Extension.
“Each of the newly restructured departments continues to work out how they will be organised and operate in their day-to-day operations, but the integration of Creative Arts and Media is a little further along as it began earlier in the process and the structure is less complicated,” she said.
Reed said the Teaching Learning Commons is also being reorganized, with the unit's structure and staffing being adjusted and may be renamed in the future.
The board also voted to end the doctorate in education program in the School of Applied Human Sciences.
Additionally, board members approved a new Mine Safety Practices and Health undergraduate certificate from the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources and the development of a new West Virginia University baseball hitting and pitching facility.
The next regular board meeting will be held on September 20th.