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Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], West Virginia University, Board of Regents and Executive Committee, Minutes, A&M 1172, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Biographical / Historical

The Board of Regents and its Executive Committee governed the administration of West Virginia University from 1868 to 1919. Named the Board of Visitors when the school opened in 1867, the group received a new title, Board of Regents, when the school became West Virginia University in 1868. Composed of one member from each of the state's eleven senatorial districts, the board was charged creating policy for and managing the university. Its responsibilities included establishing academic departments and colleges, laying out governing policies, naming faculty, appointing committees, and selecting presidents. In order to save board members from making the long trip to Morgantown too frequently, an executive committee was created to act on its behalf in between sessions. Composed of Morgantown residents, this committee oversaw the care of buildings and grounds, the choice of faculty, and the daily operations of the university.

The composition of the board changed several times during its history. In 1894, in an effort to create a more bipartisan board, the state legislature reduced the number of members to nine and charged that it could not be composed of more than five members of the same political party. A reorganization in 1909 left the board with the primary responsibility of overseeing just the educational affairs of the school. The board was dissolved in 1919 when educational policy became the control of a new State Board of Education. It was not until 1927 that the state legislature took control of the university from the state board and created its own Board of Governors.