WVU Board of Governors backs Hutson in split leadership vote
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.
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There's a great scene about power in Game of Thrones when Joffrey, the teenage boy king who is trying to ensure that everyone knows he is the TRUE king, begins to yell in a meeting of his small counsel. The King's grandfather, the true power behind the King says 'any man who must say I am the King is no true king.' It's a devastating line that send Joffrey away from the important meeting about a war and instead up to his bedroom to plan his upcoming wedding. Just devastating. There's a lot of truth in what Tywin, the grandfather says. The more you have to pound your chest about something the more people to start to question it. The line reminds me of the famous Shakespearian line 'the lady doth protests too much, methinks' from Hamlet which is of course his greatest work. What does this all have to do with football, the Big Ten, and Purdue? Well, I'm glad you asked. I'm gonna preface this by saying that I don't know as much about college football as Paul Finebaum, I just don't. I have a day job which has nothing to do with sports. Nothing to do with Purdue. Nothing to do with football. I don't get paid millions of dollars to write on this website despite the immense value I obviously bring to SB Nation and all involved. A travesty for another day I suppose. Paul Finebaum is an SEC guy. He goes on the SEC Network (owned by ESPN) to talk SEC football. There's no issue there, everyone has their speciality and you certainly wouldn't want someone like me going onto the SEC Network to talk SEC football. I'm a Big Ten sicko in that I'd rather watch a Big Ten game between two of the bottom dwellers than I would watch a random SEC game or even a highly anticipated SEC game. Maybe I've got a problem, but it's just my preference. It's also why I don't spout off about the SEC when I'm tweeting or posting on this website. I just don't have the knowledge base to provide credible information that I think would be valuable to those reading it. Paul Finebaum shares no such qualms. When asked about who would win the national title this year he had, quite a lot to say. Rather than trying to summarize it, or take him out of context, I'll just share the video with you. Couple points here Paul, first, what's this arbitrary cutoff for national titles? You say the Big Ten has won 'two national championship' or is it '1.5' in the last 70 years versus 15 national championships in your lifetime for Alabama. First off, the Big Ten has won the last two national champions so that's number one. Secondly, the Big Ten has won far more than two national championships over the lat 70 years as you so eloquently put it. Now, I'll admit it gets a bit silly going back this far because you've got to ask the strange pedantic question of, if Nebraska won a national title in the last 70 years but before they joined the Big Ten does that count as a national title for the Big Ten? I'm gonna say no. The same goes for Penn State and USC. Going back to 1975, which would be the last 70 national titles, according to the NCAA official website, the Big Ten has won 14 national titles, a full 7 times as many as Paul claims. Now, the SEC has won PLENTY more. I'm not debating or disputing that. But to be off by a magnitude of 7 should just embarrass you. Third, Rutgers, a current member of the Big Ten Conference, is largely credited as the birthplace of college football so yeah, in a way if you squint they did invent college football. What I am saying is I'm very annoyed at the disrespect and arrogance coming out of Paul Finebaum and his ilk. Keep in mind he is only a symptom, albeit the most annoying one, of this disease of disrespect against the Big Ten. I'm not sure why it started, how it started or even when it started, but as a Big Ten fan it has gotten rather annoying. Some might point to the Big Ten shutting ESPN out of their cable negotiations as one of the things that really drove up the volume of disrespect. I can't say for sure, for me personally I always think that multibillion dollar companies do the right thing and would never needlessly and personally trash their competitors but that's just me. What I do know is that there has been for the last decade or more a real and growing disrespect amongst a certain set of college sports analysts direct toward the Big Ten. This is especially true in college football where the SEC and their fans and chosen mouthpieces feel like the national title is their birthright. And listen, I'll grant that they've won 6 out of the last 10 national titles. They have great programs. As a Purdue fan I can only wish for the success of a program like Alabama or Georgia. What a dream that would be! But what people like Finebaum and his ilk fail to recognize is that the Big Ten has won the last two national titles and has a very good chance of winning a third in a row this year. Is Paul getting louder because he's starting to…doubt the SEC? What happens if the Big Ten does win their third national title in a row? Other than Paul saying he will leave the country which would all leave us just slightly better off. Would national media start to talk about the Big Ten as THE power conference in football? I doubt it. Instead, I think a good start would be to treat the conference like a real conference instead of the whiny kid on the block. But they won't. Instead, guys like Finebaum will continue to moan and complain for being called out. But, like Joffrey and Queen Gertrude from Hamlet I'm beginning to think that Finebaum's focus on the Big Ten isn't just because it annoys him, but maybe that he sees the gold flaking off that goose he's riding.
