West Liberty University

West Liberty University’s Board of Governors met Friday to discuss the school’s president, W. Franklin Evans, after he was publicly censured last fall following at least one instance of plagiarism in a speech.

Recently, a survey of West Liberty University’s faculty was conducted, gauging their level of support for Evans since he was censured last year by the board of governors. More than 80 percent of respondents to that survey disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement, “I am confident in the integrity of President Evans.” Evans has said he thinks the survey was unfair and that race plays a major role in his continued criticism. Evans is the university’s first Black president.

On this West Virginia Morning, we talk with W. Franklin Evans, president of West Liberty University (WLU). WLU’s Board of Governors voted last fall to publicly censure Evans after he was accused by the faculty senate for plagiarizing sections of his speeches since taking office in January 2021. Recently, a survey of the school’s faculty was conducted, gauging their level of support for Evans since the censure.

Last month, English professor Steve Criniti of West Liberty University was recognized by the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission as the 2020 West Virginia Professor of the Year.

On this West Virginia Morning, we’ll hear about outdoor classrooms in McDowell County, a new president at Marshall University, problems facing the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund and the West Virginia professor of the year.

On this West Virginia Morning, Dopesick is a new series streaming on Hulu. It details the rise of prescription opioids, namely Oxycontin, and the wreckage it has caused in Appalachia and across the nation. We talk with author Beth Macy, who helped create the show and wrote the book it's based on.

On this West Virginia Morning, WVU Health System is moving into Princeton, and the new director there says positive changes are coming. Also, in this show, West Liberty University’s Board of Governors has voted to publicly censure the president following plagiarism allegations, and about 140,000 kids in West Virginia are now eligible to get Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

West Liberty University’s Faculty Senate Chairman Sean Ryan said it’s time to move forward and focus on rebuilding trust between the campus community and President Franklin Evans, who has come under fire in recent weeks following multiple plagiarism allegations.

On this West Virginia Morning, a law passed legalizing same-sex marriages throughout the United States, but it still isn’t legal everywhere in the country. Also, in this show, the COVID-19 death toll is rising daily in West Virginia according to officials and we learn more about thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells that need to be capped in West Virginia.

On this West Virginia Morning, William Turner is one of the most prolific historians of the Black experience in Appalachia. His new book, “The Harlan Renaissance: Stories of Black Life in Appalachian Coal Towns,” includes his memories of growing up in Lynch, Kentucky.