Former SUU President Michael Benson Named President at West Virginia

Former SUU President Michael T. Benson has been named the 27th president at West Virginia University.  The announcement was made by West Virginia University on Monday.  Benson is the current president at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina.  His appointment at West Virginia will begin in July.

Benson served as president of Southern Utah University from 2007 to 2013.  Prior to his appointment at SUU, Benson was president at Snow College.  In 2013, he left to become president at Eastern Kentucky University, leaving EKU to take the helm at Coastal Carolina in 2020.

Benson is known for his ability to fund raise.  His years at SUU were marked by growth and expansion of facilities, including the Beverly Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts, the home of the Utah Shakespeare Festival, and the Southern Utah Museum of Art, along with numerous other campus additions.

Other milestones include increased enrollment and SUU Athletics joining the Big Sky Conference.

"During his tenure at Coastal Carolina, Benson secured a $10 million gift, the largest in the school’s history, and he worked closely with community partners and policymakers to advance initiatives that benefitted CCU," reads a press release by WVU.

The release went on to say, "WVU BOG Chair Rick Pill said Benson’s success in accelerating student enrollment and fundraising to record levels at CCU and his commitment to building strong partnerships is among the factors that led to his selection as the next president at WVU."

Benson earned his doctoral degree in modern history from the University of Oxford, St. Antony’s College. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Brigham Young University, a master’s degree in nonprofit administration at the University of Notre Dame, and a Master of Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University.

Benson has also held faculty positions at the University of Utah, the University of Notre Dame and Johns Hopkins University.

Born in Utah, Benson was raised in Texas and Indiana, and worked and studied abroad for more than six years in Italy, England and Israel. He is an accomplished athlete who played basketball at both BYU and Oxford.

West Virginia University athletics belongs to the Big 12 Conference, reuniting Benson with Alma Maters BYU (basketball) and Utah (administration).

Benson and his wife, Debi, are the parents of three children: Truman, Tatum and Talmage. He has two older children from a previous marriage, Emma and Samuel.