Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

College of Education and Human Services

Department

Curriculum & Instruction/Literacy Studies

Committee Chair

Erin McHenry-Sorber

Committee Co-Chair

Nathan Sorber

Committee Member

Nathan Sorber

Committee Member

Rodney Hughes

Committee Member

L. Christopher Plein

Abstract

In the midst of the ongoing shifts of the perception of higher education and the public’s question of the role and value of public universities, West Virginia University has simultaneously experienced institutional change through five different presidential administrations in a decade. As seen through WVU’s historical context as the state of West Virginia’s land-grant, flagship, research university, the institution has and continues to face many administrative, policy, and contextual changes as it strives to meet its strategic goals and operationalize its mission. Through document analysis and interviews with key officials, this qualitative, multi-case study seeks to understand how WVU’s mission as a land-grant university and its resulting strategic plan have shifted in the 21st century from one presidential administration to the next; how those changes have positioned the University within the overarching land-grant saga; and how those changes have influenced the work of the administrations as they operationalized the land-grant mission.

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