Talkline | July 24, 2025

New WVU President, Dr. Michael Benson, joins Dave and TJ in the studio for the entire second hour of the show. Before that, they discuss the latest in the Epstein Files saga. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
One hearing down, one to go on the compulsory vaccination requirements.
Plus we've got potholes, they're more like man holes, and
doctor Michael Benson don't join us in the studio later
this morning, it's about a news talk line and we
are underway radio.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Turned off from the studios of w v RC Media
and the Metro News Radio and Television Network, the Voice
of West Virginia comes the most powerful show in West Virginia.
This it's Metro News talk Line with Dave Wilson and
DJ Meadows.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Activated, so it's not where can we hold from Charles
stand by to David DJ. You're on.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Metro News talk Line is presented by Encova Insurance, encircling
you with coverage to protect what you care about most.
Visit Encova dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Good morning, Welcome into the program Metro News talk Line
from the Encoba Insurance studios. You know the phone number
eight hundred seven sixty five Talk eight hundred and seven
sixty five eight two five five, who have some open
segments coming up this hour. Text line is also three
oh four Talk three oh four. Shot that one down
because second hour of the show today New w President

(01:36):
Doctor Michael Benson's going to join us. We're going to
have him in studio for the entire eleven o'clock hour,
and if you would like to ask the President a question,
the text line is the way to do it. You
can text your questions to three or four Talk three
oh four. Select questions because I'm sure we have so
many the same questions you do. Uh So we will

(01:56):
try to work your questions into the conversation, probably toward
the second half of the eleven o'clock hour, but text
your questions in three or four Talk three oh four.
Doctor Benson going to join us the entire eleven o'clock hour.
Jake Link on the video stream and Sophia Wasik on
the phones. This morning. TJ Meadows is in the Morgantown

(02:16):
studio this morning. Morning.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
TJ.

Speaker 4 (02:17):
It's up, buddy.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
How are you nice to see in person?

Speaker 4 (02:20):
It's good to be here. I'm like when we can
get together and do a show, so.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
That way I can just reach over and slap you
arn disagree. I'm really looking forward to our conversation with
doctor Benson. We got a lot to cover. Really interesting guy,
really dynamic background, and we're gonna have an opportunity to
have him for an hour and talk about a little
bit of everything.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
This morning I was reading over his bio. Kind of
reminds me of the guy that did everything and also
led the band at halftime. You know what I'm saying.
I mean, it's like he was into everything, did everything,
well rounded person, renaissance man.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
There was a story that he was kind of famous
for when he was out in Utah. A student kind
of very snarkily said snarkily is that a word? It is,
all right, we'll.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
Go with it.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Well, you had snow, and he said, well, I'll go
to class that the president shows up and shovels my driveway.
Yeah he did. He did. Now, if he clears off
you know, High Street here later this winter, when the
snow is covering it in the righting sleds down down
frat Row, then we'll see if he lives up to
the snowplow hype.

Speaker 4 (03:20):
Want to hear you talk about it. Maybe it's more
him patching potholes in Morgantown.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Well, you drove on the roads this morning. If he
can get the if he can get the roads in
Morgantown fixed, running for governor. Here's what I say here.
All right, we'll get to Michael Benson coming up second.
Our Ryan Schmells will join us Fox News Radio. We'll
get into the latest in DC and it just keeps
getting weirder and weirder. Uh not weird. But Jeff Jenkins

(03:46):
joins us from the Metro News studios down in Charleston
this morning. A couple of things to hit on with Jeff, Jeff,
Good morning, Good morning guys.

Speaker 5 (03:52):
How you doing.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
We're doing pretty well. Let's start with the court hearing
yesterday in Kanawa County. There was a lawsuit fighting all
county trying to stop the governor's executive order which would
allow for religious exemptions to compulsory school vaccinations. What happened
yesterday in Kannah County.

Speaker 5 (04:11):
Well, it really never got to the merits of the case,
and you can read our story wv Metro News dot com.
Brad Micaelhaney and Brad reports he was in the courtroom
yesterday and what happened was is that Judge Kenneth Ballard
ruled on a motion from the defense in this case
that it did not meet the requirement of notifying the

(04:32):
state thirty days prior to suing the state. Now, this
these were cases from the ACLU, and there are some
exemptions to that notification, and they believed that this case
did that that they would be exempt from the thirty
day notice. The judge didn't see it that way. This
was a case from a couple of parents who want

(04:54):
the current state law when it comes to vaccinations to
stay in place because their children are compromised. They were
concerned that if too many kids or that kids get
in school without being vaccinated, that it would compromise their children.
So the uh so, basically it was a case against
the governor's executive order that allows for religious exemptions. It

(05:19):
got bogged down quite honestly, and you know, for the
for almost the entire hearing in the issue of not
giving the proper notice.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
To the state before.

Speaker 5 (05:30):
Before you sue them the thirty day notice, and the
judges dis missed the dismissed the case. Now, when Brad
spoke to Aubrey Sparks with the with the American Civil
Liberties Union West Virginia, she was kind of not clear.
They hadn't made the decision whether they would refile that
lawsuit or just kind of let things play out, because

(05:52):
we know that this is continuing in other courts. But
she did say which I thought was interesting, and we
had a SoundBite on the morning News about this, is that,
you know, this issue has to be solved one way
or another. And you said, she said, if you take
the case of the state, what the state is saying
is that the governor's executive orders trump state law, which
she says, that's going to be a problem on the
miny fronts if that's not decided upon by a higher court.

Speaker 4 (06:16):
So, Jeff, this thing has to go to the higher court. Right,
it ends up at the Supreme Court, I would imagine,
or even one of the circuit courts.

Speaker 5 (06:22):
That's fair, right, Oh, yeah, these things will. Yeah, I mean,
it's just a matter of how quickly it gets there.
And we know, as you guys have spoken about in
school years, you know, like three to four weeks away
in some of these places, in some of these counties.
So and I've seen, you know, some counties are going
to follow what the state Board of Education says, follow

(06:42):
the current law. Some counties have said they're going to
allow exemptions. I've seen it both from county superintendent. So
there's really kind of a smattering or you know different
you know, the counties are considering it in different ways,
it appears, so we'll see what happens. And that gets
us to today case. And that's where Brad is right
now in Raleigh County. And this is a lawsuit that

(07:05):
was filed by a Raleigh County mother who has a
young child, I think she's four years old, is going
into school this year and she wants to get that
religious exemption and that from the Governor's from the governor's orders.
So it's kind of the other side of the issue,
and this is of great interest this case. In fact,
the courtroom is pick. Brad barely got in there. They

(07:28):
said there was no more room, and then they did
let a couple of the reporters in that were there
that had gotten there plenty early, but it was just
so pick. So Brad's in there now, so we'll see
what happens. I don't think this case has the same
thirty day problem that the other case had, so we'll
see what happens. This has been built as an evidentiary hearing,
so there's going to be evidence, probably some testimony today

(07:49):
and we'll see what happens in this one.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Do you think Brad had to drop do you know
who I am. I'm Brad, I'm the statewide correspondent.

Speaker 5 (07:58):
I don't think he'd do that, but I'm glad, but
I'm glad he got in.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
All right. We will have the latest on that at
wv Metro news dot com and later on this afternoon
on Much News Midday with Amanda and Dave, pending the
conclusion of that hearing. All right, Jeff, We're talking to
Jeff Jenkins, Metro News news anchor on the Morning News.
You can hear me each morning with Chris Lorrence across
the network. A tragic story out of Mercer County involving

(08:23):
a son and his parents and a murder charge.

Speaker 5 (08:26):
Yeah, this is a man identified his twenty four ye
old Joshua Hubinek Prince. Then he is charged with murder,
charged with killing his father yesterday morning and injuring his mother.
And we're we've just kind of learned about the story,
but now we've got more information on the story after
talking to the Mercer County Sheriff, Alan Christian this morning.

(08:47):
So we're going to play a little SoundBite here of
the sheriff and then we'll get into more of what
the story is.

Speaker 6 (08:53):
Some officers quickly place the suspect under restain.

Speaker 5 (08:57):
It, all right, and then I'll just tell you what
story is is that Joshua Hubaneck is charged with murder.

Speaker 6 (09:03):
We can hear it, Jeff who Yeah, arm kept her
from bleeding them to Liams could arrive.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
All right. That was the sheriff of Mercer County explaining
the scene when authorities arrived.

Speaker 5 (09:13):
Take it from there, Jeff, right, Okay, thank you, Sorry
about that. Joshua Hubeneck is twenty four years old of Princeton.
He's been charged with murder in connection with the murder
of his father and also with malicious wounding in connection
with the wounding of his mother. And Sheriff Christian told
us this morning that it was a domestic situation. They

(09:33):
had gotten a call and from what they believe is
that the son was threatening to hurt himself and the
father tried to prevent him from doing that, and then
things escalated. There was a gun involved, but also there
were knives involved, and Hubeneck is charged with attacking his

(09:55):
father and mother. Michael Hubaneck is his father, who died
at the scene. And this was in the Humaneck home
there just outside of Princeton early yesterday morning. The criminal
complaint talks about Michael Humanek was being one of the injuries.
Is he one of his several wounds was he was
slat his throat was slashed. And then the mother she

(10:18):
called nine one one and said that he reported the
stabbing and reported what was happening. And then Michael Hubaneck
himself called not Michael Hubaneck, Joshua the son called nine
one one himself and said I will be here when
you get here, told police.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
And he was.

Speaker 5 (10:33):
He was on the telgate to pickup truck outside the
home covered with blood. And now he is charged with
the murder of his father, the malicious wounding of his mother.

Speaker 7 (10:46):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (10:46):
And she was not in the area where the initial
fight took place, but then she came, she came in
and she was injured in that. So we Humanek is
in jail, UH and we'll have a story up on
the website. And as we talked to the sheriff this morning,
they still they know what human X says caused it
after talking to him, but they're they're not sure exactly

(11:07):
what caused it yet. They're still investigating what would be
the motive of this, what started this argument.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
Talking to Jeff Chains will have a story at wv
metronews dot com any any more Volkswagen sized potholes on
I sixty four.

Speaker 5 (11:20):
Today that pothole is now cleared. It's it's full of
new concrete and it's that concrete is curious. In the
last half hour, they have opened all lanes now in
Interstate sixty four westbound on the Carter Bridge, Big Blue
Bridge goes over the Kanal River in Charleston, after the
second huge pothole in the last three weeks had developed.

(11:42):
So this is like a three by three and again
you could see all the way down to the river
from it. And so what's going to happen here and
is that the DOH is going to do some closures
at night. They've been doing this now since the first
pothole pothole form. They're going to be doing some closings
at night and try to do some preventative work. And

(12:04):
then in September they're going to do this is more
like a band aid for a couple of years. They're
going to put like a thin what they call like
a thin membrane over the deck of the bridge and
get that buy until they can do the full deck
replacement in twenty twenty seven, which will be north of
thirty million dollars. That'll cost north of thirty million dollars.

(12:26):
Now you may be asking, you know, why not do
that right away? I don't think they have the money.
It sounds like from the DOASID they don't have the
money to do that big of a project right away.
There's some dispute obviously within the morris administration looking back
to the Justice administration, about how funds were spent on
highway projects, because you have you've heard Governor Morrissey say

(12:49):
several times about the roast of prosperity, how all that
money was basically spent and there was nothing left when
they got to office. So and we understand. Also, I
think a big part of the surplus from the previous
fiscal year's budget that ended on June thirtieth, when they
get those funnel surplus numbers, some of that money will

(13:09):
be going to highways too. But it just sounds like
from the DOH, give us some time, we don't have
the money yet, we can do this fix and then
we'll have the money to redo the whole concrete deck
in twenty twenty seven.

Speaker 4 (13:20):
So, Jeff, when you talk about these potholes, you note
that you can see the river. That sounds like a
safety issue to me. What's d saying about safety?

Speaker 5 (13:30):
DA says the bridge is safe as far as structurally safe.
It's got potholes in it. But like the you know,
the understructure, every I mean everything that the peers and
all that you know obviously that is they say that
is strong, that is safe. It's just just the deck
is bad. And for whatever reason, when the last time
they did this, and I don't have the date in

(13:51):
front of me, the last time they did the complete deck,
you know, it's it's ran its course and so it's
forming these holes in it, and you know they were
trying to get to them beforehanding yesterday another big hole
for them. So I mean this may I mean, there's
no there's no guarantee that this won't happen again. You know,

(14:11):
you know they're trying to do this maintenance work before September,
kind of seeing, okay, this might be a problem. Let's
fill this one tonight. But that's not to say that
you know, some other big one can't can't form. And
we were talking about this, and what does that say?
Because you have all these thousands and thousands of people
that use this road. If you're going you know, if
you're going ICE sixty four anywhere west of Charleston, or

(14:35):
or you're going I seventy seven north of Charleston, you're
going to get caught in that backup. So what does
that say about the one or two time traveler through
West Virginia that gets stuck and get stuck in that?
You know, that's not that's not a good look for
the state.

Speaker 4 (14:49):
For miles, by the way, we're talking about to the
met miles and miles, And I mean, I'm not an engineer, Dave,
I don't know, but so far, the holes, I guess
have been small enough. You get a bigger hole, you
got a bigg problem. I mean, I don't know how
that would work out. But if you get a larger
hole and you can see through to the I mean
you get where I'm going with this.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
Yeah, fall into the river.

Speaker 4 (15:09):
Yeah, I mean, I didn't want to come right out
and say it, but yeah, I mean three B three
is big enough.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
You're going to break your entire suspension in your vehicle
if you hit that at eighty miles an hour any
biggar you'll just fall into the river.

Speaker 4 (15:18):
I mean, would the rebar prevent a larger hole?

Speaker 1 (15:21):
I don't know who knows? Hashtag ft Dr Jeff Jenkins
from the Metro News studios down in Charleston, appreciate.

Speaker 5 (15:28):
It, Jeff, see you guys.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
All right, Buddy, coming up, we'll talk to Ryan Smells,
Fox News Radio. He's in DC with the latest it
keeps getting weird. Plus send your questions in for doctor Benson.
He's going to join us in the second hour, three
or four talk three oh four. That's the way to
do it. David tj in the and Co Insurance Studios,
both in Morgantown today, We're back in a moment.

Speaker 8 (15:48):
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Speaker 4 (16:19):
Hey there, it's Dave Alliv.

Speaker 9 (16:20):
I'd like to invite you to join myself along with
thirteen News and Tonight Live anchor Amanda Baron, each weekday
from noontil three for Metro News Midday, brought to you
by Selango Law. We'll cover the news from across the
state of West Virginia, the news West Virginians need to
keep them informed during their workday. It's weekdays from noon
till three. Metro News Midday with thirteen News and Tonight

(16:40):
Live anchor Amanda Baron, brought to you by Selango Law
On Metro News, the Voice of West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
News talk Line is presented by Encova Insurance and circling
you with coverage to protect what you care about most.
Visit Encova dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
Three oh four Talk three oh four that's the text line.
Let's go to Washington, d C. Where Fox News Radios
Ryan Schmells is Wall Street Journal reporting that President Trump
was informed by the DOJ that his name and many
others were in the Epstein files. Also the House breaking
without taking a vote on any of those resolutions to

(17:33):
try to force the release of the Epstein files. Got that.
Ryan Schmells has more details. Maybe Ryan, good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 10 (17:42):
Where do you start?

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Uh, That's what I wanted to ask you. Where do
we start with this? We've got the Wall Street Journal's report,
you got the house breaking. Where do where are we
going to go with this? Ryan?

Speaker 10 (17:52):
I mean, I'll go with my expertise here, which is,
you know what the house is doing right now? Well, yeah,
the house did break, and you know they're breaking when
we have a shutdown that's going to be happening potentially
at the end of September, so there's not a lot
of time for them to work with here. But this
condition became a very divisive one. And now you do
have someone set that have some bipartisanship. You have the

(18:13):
Glain Maxwell deposition, which is actually going to happen in prison.
We do know it's going to happen in August now,
and you pretty much oversight committee members or you know,
their their counsel and staff will go there. They will
have an interview with her. But I think we need
to keep in mind that there are some skeptics. Even
the people who are pushing for the subpoena to happen
have said that They question if she can be a

(18:35):
reliable witness because of you know, the past crime she's
committed and kind of the the just the relationship and
the heinous accusations about who she is.

Speaker 4 (18:47):
Ryan. The journal says that the President was told by
Pam Bondi back in May that his name is in
the report. Now, that doesn't mean it's associated with any
criminal activity, correct, Oh.

Speaker 10 (18:58):
Correct, Yes, And that's something I probably needs to be
reiterated several times because Jeffrey Epstein was a well known person.
He had a lot of friends, both high profile and
low profile, and he had a lot of people in
his inner circles. But you know, some of those folks
were probably very unaware of of the evil that he
was committing or accused of committing. And so you know,

(19:21):
you know whether or not. And President Trump did have
a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, Now I don't think it's
a secret. There's pictures of them together. They you know,
they talked to each other before. But you know, the
the level of which you know President Trump had any
type of involvement, you know, that's that's that's just an
accusation and a conspiracy right now, So you know, we
don't know if Donald Trump, if he's actually on the list,

(19:42):
you know, means anything or just that you know, this
is somebody Jeffrey Epstein knew. But there that was. That
was the extent of their relationships. They just they just
knew each other.

Speaker 4 (19:51):
But the President told reporters that he wasn't told that
his name was on the list. Clear that up for me?

Speaker 10 (19:58):
Oh yeah, well, I mean there reporting out there, and
you got the journal reporting out there that President Trump
was briefed by the Department of Justice and Attorney General
Pimbondi that he was on the list. But he is
denying this report pretty extensively, and the White House is
pushing back on it as well. So it seems like

(20:18):
there are people potentially within the administration who are putting
this out there, and whether it's true or not, I mean,
we'll have to find out.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
Well after at some point they're going to have to
release the five as whatever finals they can. I know
a judge has said that the grand jury testimony can't
be released. It's all very sensitive because obviously you have
you know, this involves children with what the crimes of
Epstein committed. So I grow very tired of the whole thing.
It released them or not, but we have other things

(20:50):
we need to deal with.

Speaker 10 (20:52):
Yeah, no, exactly. I mean it's a very exhausting case.
But look, I mean, this is the case that's got
a lot of people talking. I mean, this is the
passion product of Republicans for years. They wanted to know
who was involved with this guy and who else could
be out there that didn't get caught during that initial investigation.
And now you have Democrats who have taken this issue
up and have been very passionate about it, and it's

(21:14):
carried over into the political side of things.

Speaker 4 (21:15):
Well, Ryan, fifteen seconds two, fifteen seconds two, it crippled
the house. The House had to adjourn, it did.

Speaker 10 (21:22):
Yeah, and it's been something that's divided President Trump's base
unlike any other year.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
Fox News Radios, Ryan Schmels in Washington, d C. Ryan
always appreciated, buddy, Thank you very much.

Speaker 10 (21:35):
Thanks boys.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Coming up, we'll take your text three or four Talk
three oh four, eight hundred and seven to sixty five.
Talk is the phone number. Michael Benson joins us at
the top of the hour. This is talk Line on
Metro News, the Voice of West Virginia. Right now, it
is ten thirty times. To get a news update, Let's
check in with the Metro News radio network find out
what's happening across the great state of West Virginia.

Speaker 5 (21:55):
West Virginia Metro News and and Jeff Jenkins. A fight
between a son and his father, a apparently over something
going on at work, has ended in murder. Mercer County Shares, WSA.
Twenty four year old Joshua Hubeneck had two knives and
was covered with blood when they found him early Wednesday
morning sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck outside
his parents' home near Princeton, w SAY. Hubeneck later told

(22:17):
him he and his father, Michael Hubenick, gotten into an
argument and it had escalated. He says his dad had
a gun and he had a knife. Joshua Hubeneck allegedly
stabbed his father, including stabbing him in the neck, and
also stabbed his mother. His mother survived the attack. His
father is dead. Joshua Hubeneck is in jail. An emotional
sentencing hearing in Jefferson County where a man from El

(22:39):
Salvador was sentenced to life in prison with a chance
for parole in about nineteen years after admitting that he
murdered thirty two year old Samantha Daily of Jefferson County.
Forty seven year old David Caderone did not apologize for
what happened. He said through an interpreter that God knows
the reality of everything. Before June's flood is not likely.
Many people in Ohio County, New Ada, Davis and them

(23:00):
may still not know her name, but they know what
she's done for them. In the last five weeks. She's
helped coordinate, deliver, and keep track of supplies coming in
to Valley Grow for the flood victims.

Speaker 6 (23:09):
I've heard a lot of said stories, and you know,
I knew some of the victims. You know, as she
said that, I still wanted to be there for them.

Speaker 5 (23:19):
You're listening to Metro News, the Voice of West Virginia.

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Speaker 5 (24:22):
The summer of heat and rain returns to heat today
across West Virginia. Meteorologists with a Nastal Weather Service AA
it's going to be the hottest in the Charleston Huntington
corridor and the western counties of the state. The Weather
Service is issued a heat advisory for fifteen counties beginning
next hour and going until eight o'clock tonight. It's going
to feel like it's hotter than one hundred degrees. Next hour,

(24:42):
Metro News Talk Line a full hour with WVU President
Michael T. Benson from the Metro News anchored desk. I'm
Jeff Jenkins.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
Tax Line three or four Talk three oh four. Send
us your questions if you've got a question for doctor
Michael Benson, new w President. He's going to join us
entire second hour of the show today. Lots to dive
into with him his background. We'll talk some athletics, we'll
talk academics, all the above on the table this morning.
He'll join us one hour from now, three or four

(25:32):
Talk three oh four. Hey, guys, another day with Gleen
Maxwell and jail for recruiting miners to have sex with
rich men. But no rich men are in jail for
having sex with said miners. And you gentlemen are confused.
Why folks want the full Epstein files released? Crazy times
we live in when things like this can be dismissed
as nothing. Berger says the Texter. Okay, I had to

(25:55):
want to do another half hour on Epstein today. I
grow weary of this story. Look here here's where I am.
Release the files. Just release the files. Really, whatever you
can legally do release them, put it out there. That's
the only way that And even then people aren't going
to be satisfied when they don't get the answer that
they have already concocted in their head. It's not binary,

(26:18):
but for MEDJ. Either the files are released and we
are the most massive cover up of the most heinous
crime possible has been exposed. And it's not just the
Trump administration. This goes back to the Biden administration. This
was the Biden DOJ that prosecuted him. Then we have
the most massive cover up in history that has to

(26:38):
now be dealt with. Or I mean again, not binary.
The files are released and it turns out this guy
was a pervert, was evil, but wasn't trafficking to other
individuals because he needed these rich people to finance the
lifestyle that he was living at the time. Again not binary,
Not binary choices, but the only way we can all

(27:01):
move forward and either prosecute the guilty people that need
to be prosecuted and thrown away with the key burned
and thrown away with them, or we got to move
on to other things, so we can move on to
other things. Release the fun just release them.

Speaker 4 (27:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
Wait, do wait, wait, waiting on say, I'm all flummox No.

Speaker 4 (27:19):
Well, you know, look, I think you released these files.
There's a lot of names and one of the things
that I do think is getting lost in this. And
someone just accused me of of protecting the president. That's fine.
Just because someone's name would be in these files, sure
doesn't mean they committed criminal activity. So you got to
be sensitive to that. The fact that child pornography is

(27:40):
part of these you have to be sensitive to that.
You don't let that information go. But to your point,
when you can cripple work in the US House of
Representatives over something like this, that's a problem and we
need to move past it. And Tom Massey, h Taylor Green,
they're not going to move past this. I mean, she
said the other day she was gonna put the kebash
on this thing with the sea A try to stop

(28:01):
it as part of the cr If they don't release
the files, get the files out there, let people make
their decisions. And I'll also say this arguing about the files,
arguing about whether or not this is a conspiracy, and look,
I think largely it is. And you reap what you sow,
you reap what you sew. And now Trump is dealing

(28:21):
with it, these accusations that people are somehow pro sex offender,
if they want this to go away or they just
want to get it over with and move on. That's crazy.
I've seen that as well. And it's this conflation of
everything and this you're either on my side or you're not.
That is crippling everything. And so one of the things
I do want to do, or try to do and

(28:43):
talking about this is try to bring some kind of
rationale to it, a rational approach, a sensible approach to
your point, release the files. Let people take a look
at what you can understand that just because a name
is in it doesn't mean there was criminal activity, and
have some common sense and try to move on and
get about the business of government.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
And again it is worth pointing out Trump created this.
He created this on the campaign trail. Others glomb go
into it on the campaign trail. Bongino talked about it
day after day after day on his show, and like
you said, you reap what you saw. So the release
the files.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
But if you were Biden, if you were a Democratic strategist,
even not on behalf of Biden, he's in the file, right,
I think we'll all agree on that he has names
in there. If it was in there criminally, why would
you not jump on that? Why yes?

Speaker 1 (29:33):
Why only now does something leak out? Why only? I
have those same questions if you're the Biden administration, you're
the Harris campaign. You see the riding on the wall,
Why somebody release these? Just release the files.

Speaker 4 (29:49):
I saw Scott Jennings on the last sign on CNN
trying to say that MAGA wasn't upset about this and
no one care. Oh yeah they are. MAGA is definitely
interested and talking about this and demanding it. So that's
another thing, you know. And if the president doesn't want
they're support anymore, he doesn't want their support.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
But because again, man, the ramifications, if the conspiracy theorists
are correct, right, and there was, you've got talk about
a massive cover of and and the people that would
have to be prosecuted and thrown in jail. I don't
know if I'm ready for that. That's that's huge. But

(30:25):
think about what you are accusing this and the Biden administration.
We'll be bipartisan here. You're accusing them of covering up
the most massive child pornography child sex ring in history
and that's a pretty big accusation to love out there
without a whole lot of public evidence to back up your.

Speaker 4 (30:46):
Theory, and way too much emotion around it trying to
figure it out when we need, you know, calm down
and let the facts lead us. Where the facts lead us.
You feel better at all?

Speaker 1 (30:56):
Not really, not really, not really, because I don't think
anybody's ever going to be satisfied.

Speaker 4 (31:01):
That's fair.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
If if you don't get the answer, and I've said
this many times, if you don't get the answer that
you have concocted in your mind, you are going to
just do the conspiracy theory thing. You take one step
back and well, they haven't released all the fun. That's
not all they're hiding. They're still hiding something, right, That's
that's the beauty of the conspiracy theory.

Speaker 4 (31:22):
Is this easier though, than dealing with a thirty seven
trillion dollars double budget debt and dealing with social security?
I mean, I honestly I think there's something there in that.
Those are very complex problems that would bring a lot
of pain to people. You have to cut entitlements, you
have to do different things. Easier to focus on something
like this with this narrative than to deal with some

(31:42):
of our fiscal issues if.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
You can put the focus on this and not the
looming government shutdown in what lir' July twenty fourth today,
So yeah, a little more than six weeks when you're
in six weeks from now. Yeah, three or four talk
three or four. That's the tax line. We'll take some
text and I want to revisit this is what we
actually wanted to do in this segment. But here we
are revisit our conversation yesterday with Greg Thomas, because well,

(32:06):
this gets me in trouble to you, Jay, I started
thinking we'll go from there. That's a good bit after
yesterday's conversation with the GOP strategist Greg Thomas. There are
four talk three or four. That's the text line. We'll
get some of your thoughts coming up in a moment.
Doctor Michael Benson will join us top of the hour.
This is mentioned his talk line from the ing Co
Insurance Studios.

Speaker 13 (32:26):
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Speaker 1 (34:18):
A couple of texts here three oh four Talk three
oh four. H Dave, I do not think that the
Epstein story is any worse than Sean Diddy and look
what did he got? Screwed up? System? Yes, says the text.
If the files could have been used to derail Trump's reelection,
the Democrats would have released them four Talk three oh four.

(34:42):
From tones and some reports, you can see Trump paters
wringing their hands, just hoping for this Epstein thing to
be the issue that finally divides his supporters. It's despicable
how soon they forget, though, that it's not a portrait
of Trump spread out on a sofa and a certain
blue dress that was found in Epstein's home. Does that

(35:04):
mean that Slick Willie It's guilty of a crime. No,
it means the same as Trump. He knew the guy,
says the Texter. Three or four Talk, three oh four. Hey, Dave,
you start off by saying this is enough on Epstein.
Then you carried on for fifteen minutes explaining what we
had enough of.

Speaker 4 (35:22):
Jeesh, I mean people are talking about it.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
That's fair, all right? We move on three or four
Talk three or four is a text line if you
have a question, Doctor Michael Benson, new w President going
to join us for the entire second hour. Text your
question to us at three or four Talk three oh four.
I did want to just revisit for a moment the
conversation we had with Greg Thomas yesterday GOP strategists. We

(35:47):
talked to him about the upcoming Republican conference which will
be going on here in Morgantown this weekend. As a
matter of fact, are you gonna sneak in? Uh No,
I've got things to do. I've got things due places
to be. There's baseball games to take in this weekend.
But during that conversation I was thinking, listening to him

(36:10):
talk and driving home yesterday, I was thinking about this
question TJ. The Republican Party in West Virginia go back
to I forget the year that it was, but let's
start at the year where Donna Boley is the only
Republican senator. She's it number, she's caucusing one of one.

Speaker 4 (36:27):
Late nineties.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
Maybe, yeah, it's mid nineties, late nineties. But from that
point on you start to gain a seat. You gain
a seat, and then you really had that surge in
you know what, twenty twenty ten. Obviously leading up to
twenty sixteen, you get the majorities and you move on
from there and I get the super majorities. But as
a product of that success, you become more popular. More

(36:50):
people want to latch on, You get people that switch parties.
You also get other people who join for political ambitious reasons.
And the question I was wondering is is the party
now a victim of its own success? Because you have
more people, you have more ideas, you have more philosophies,

(37:11):
and you don't have that narrowly tailored platform where everybody's
on board. Everybody's pulling in the same direction. We want
these ten things, fifteen things, whatever they are, and we're
all going to push for that. Well, now you've got
interest that range from social issues to fiscal conservatism, to

(37:31):
the business sector, the economics sector. You've got this wide
range and everybody's out to get their own. Are you
a product of your own success or a victim of
your own success? At this point, I think it.

Speaker 4 (37:41):
Is definitely harder to satisfy a larger constituency than it
is to satisfy a smaller constituency, because to your point,
you've got business, You've got social issues, right, You've got
a realm of the party arm of the party very
focused far right on conservative social issues. Have a large
part of the party very focused on business fiscal conservative issues.

(38:06):
And the reality is that does get expanded when you
need independence in order to make this work in a
general election. That's why I think kicking them out. It's
one thing to kick somebody out if you never invited
them to the party, but when you needed them and
now you don't need them and you want to kick

(38:27):
them out. I can see how people get ticked off
about that. One of the questions I get, and I
know you've raised it too. It's a fair question. Well,
it's not their primary, it's the Republican's primary. That is
entirely correct, and the Republicans can choose to close the
primary entirely correct. However, when you don't have fifty plus one,
as Greg Thomas pointed out, and you need those independents

(38:48):
and you've got twenty five, twenty four percent out there
that can swing go one way or the other, they
can help you lose as quickly as they helped you win.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
And look, this is likely for Republicans at this point
a long term issue. They're not going to have any
problem maintaining supermajorities in twenty six, probably not in twenty eight.
But when you get to those post Trump elections and
those high low propensity voters aren't coming out like they

(39:16):
did fortune and Trump drew out people who had never voted,
didn't vote in other elections, they only voted when he
was on the ballot. What does that look like? Because
remember Republicans and remember the two Democrats. At one time,
Democrats had the super majority, and the pendulum has swung
all the way around. The advantage I think Democrats could
have TJ is what I just talked about with the
Republicans in twenty ten. You've got a smaller caucus, you

(39:41):
can get a platform together, you can all get on
the same message, you can all get onto the same,
you know, direction as far as what you're going to do,
what you're going to campaign on, what you are going
to try to deliver, much smaller caucus, much smaller, fewer
people you have to please throughout the legislature. You've got

(40:02):
an opportunity there. You've got an opportunity to start to
rebound after the last you know, fifteen what has it
been about fifteen years so far?

Speaker 4 (40:09):
I think if you have the wisdom to return to
a moderate West Virginia Democratic Party, a true West Virginia
Democratic Party, not what the far left is doing in Washington,
that agenda will not fly here.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
No, But can you separate yourself from that if you're
on that, if you're the Democrats.

Speaker 4 (40:24):
I think, if you're gonna win and you're gonna move
the numbers, you're going to have to back to the
Republican side. Lawmakers I talk to who share their thoughts
with me, but for fear of political retribution, don't want
their name associated with these thoughts, and I'll honor that.
They talk about the difficulty of the supermajority. To your point,
they've grown so large, they're a victim of their own success.

(40:47):
A lot of these folks think they would have more
success if they had a seventy thirty in a lot
of these situations because of some of the politics and
issues that you see now, they would actually be able
to get more done having a majority, but not a
ninety ten. That's something to think about when you have
folks that are coming forward saying, you know, we've always

(41:07):
been a little crazy, but the days of being less crazy,
we're maybe a little better and not having that supermajority,
because really, if you think about it, it does it turns
out to be factions within the Republican party and it
may be harder to whip that. It may be harder
to move it along. I mean, we've seen the far
right on the vax thing versus the more what I
would say, moderate science based Republican stance on this. And

(41:29):
if you had a seventy thirty, a sixty forty and
eighty twenty, is that easier to manage than a ninety
five to five or a ninety ten or in the
case what two in the set right. So yeah, you.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
Know, we fall and we got to move on. We
got to take the break. We fall into this as well,
Assuming that all Republicans are creating all Democrats are created. Well,
they got a super majority, they should be able to
pass anything. Well, well, you got a lot of people
to please. Same thing on the Democrats. Well he or
she is a Democrat. They must think X. Well, their
business policy must be x their social policies must be

(42:06):
x y because you're in that party. It's not always
the case. That's a lazy man's way of thinking about it.
That's fair, and we do that occasionally.

Speaker 4 (42:14):
All right, Well, surely we don't take the path of
least resistance stage.

Speaker 1 (42:17):
We don't do that, not in this business. That's why
we'll do some texts coming up next three or four
Talk three oh four. Doctor Michael Benson joins us top
of the aren't This is talk line from the Encode
Insurance Studios.

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talk three to ZH four. Get it through your brains.
There is no list. That list died in the New
York jail, Cell says the Texter, Isn't it blatantly obvious

(44:25):
there is an Epstein cover up? Is there only one
que remaining? One question remaining about what and who the
cover up is about? And why President Trump has not
opened up the files with victims' names redacted? Why didn't
Biden open up the files with names redacted?

Speaker 4 (44:45):
Why?

Speaker 1 (44:46):
I mean, I mean you could ask the same question.

Speaker 4 (44:48):
Look, because there's Democrats in the files, and again they're
not criminally necessarily liable either, works both.

Speaker 1 (44:56):
Ways, Dave and TJ. The Epstein files show he was
not human, but the leader of a cosmic invasion. For
that matter, it will show Governor for that matter, we'll
show Governor Morris he also an alien. Then that he
was wearing he was actually Jim Justice. Isn't it odd
that you never see them together? Question Mark? Yeah, see,

(45:20):
that's how conspiracy theory starts. Isn't it odd you never
see those two together.

Speaker 4 (45:23):
I see what you did there, Texter. That's that's very nice.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
Well done, well done.

Speaker 4 (45:29):
But you know that's the difference between theories, right, there's
just enough of something there to start the conspiracy versus
something like that. That's obviously hyperbole, but there's there's just enough,
just enough in the Epstein thing, right, just enough, I mean,
because it's fact God was a bad guy.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
Oh yeah, absolutely bad guy, bad human. Nobody's disputing that.

Speaker 4 (45:53):
But enough?

Speaker 1 (45:54):
But did he traffic? And if he did? I mean,
are we talking a massive cover up? Conspiracy theories? They
say the Fort Hillbridge is safe? What about boaters below
the falling chunks of concrete? Are heart hats required on
the kanaw? In addition to PFDs, asked the texter.

Speaker 4 (46:14):
That's a fair point. I was telling you off the
air I used to my parents lived on the river.
We'd take the boat out. We'd use that for shade.
You'd get under the bridge if you wanted to go
off a little bit. So that's a fair point.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
All right? Three or four talk three or four is
the text line? Tell you what coming up? Second hour?
New w President doctor Michael Benson going to join us.
We're going to have him in studio for the entire hour.
We're going to talk about his background. We're going to
talk academics, we'll talk athletics. Who knows what all we
might get into why he's going from Myrtle Beach to
Morgantown instead of the I thought it went the other way.

(46:47):
But we will talk to him in studio. If you
have a question, text it to us. Some of you
already have. I have put them on file. One of
them's a really good question. By the way. We'll get
to as many of those as we can probably second
half of the hour. So text your questions three or
four Talk three oh four, and we will try to
get those into the conversation. As doctor Michael Benson do

(47:10):
DOUBLEV president. He's going to join us in the studio
for the entire eleven o'clock hour. Go get you another
cup of coffee at Glazed Donut as well. This is
talk Line on Metro News, the voice of West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
Metro News. Talk Line is presented by Incova Insurance, encircling
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Visit incova dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
Our number two Metro News talk line. It's gonna be
a special hour, a little bit different. Got a guest
in studio. If you have questions for doctor Michael Benson,
new president at WVU, you can text those to us
at three oh four Talk three to zero four. We'll
try to weave those into the conversation. Dave and TJ.

(48:02):
We're both in Morgantown this morning in the COVA Insurance Studios,
and we are honored to welcome inside the studios with
us the new president at West Virginia University, doctor Michael Benson.
Good morning, sir.

Speaker 3 (48:16):
Good morning to you. I appreciate that walk up music too.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
You like that, you know that's custom for you. Appreciate
appreciate you coming in buddy.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
All right, thank you.

Speaker 10 (48:25):
Well.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
How's the first couple of weeks here in Morgantown going
So far?

Speaker 3 (48:29):
He's going fantastic.

Speaker 17 (48:30):
I've told all my friends back in South Carolina that
ask I've been busy in life, but remember quite this busy.

Speaker 3 (48:36):
It's a good kind of busy.

Speaker 17 (48:38):
I'm trying to be out and about as much as
I possibly can, made as many people as I can
get on campus.

Speaker 3 (48:43):
Zan Kroger two nights ago and.

Speaker 17 (48:46):
Stocking up on Ben and Jerry's ice cream and saw
center Olaverio and.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
He's hard to miss. Yeah, yeah, I.

Speaker 17 (48:52):
Saw him pushing his cart and his wife was out
of town. And I'm a bachelor here for the next
little while and to my wife and two kids, join
me here. But anyway, he said, hey, come with me
to Fairmont for the state of the city. So that's
where I was last night. I had a wonderful time
down there. Met the mayor and the city manager, remember
of the city council, a couple of county commissioners. But
I'm you know, that was an example of I'm trying

(49:15):
to get out and see as many as I possibly can.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
Center Oliverio has been terrific. He took me on a tour.
I was following him in his car and we were
on the phone. We went up in South Fairmont State.
We saw some w medicine facilities. So it was a
great night, all right.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
We got a lot to get into again, if you've
got a question for doctor Benson, give us a call
or give us a text three or four talk three
oh four. So degree at BYU, studied at Oxford, president
at a couple of colleges in Utah. You've been to
Eastern Carolina or east eastern Kentucky coastal Carolina. Very nice
campus down in Conway. So when you were approached about

(49:50):
this opening at West Virginia University in Morgantown. What drew
your interest to this position.

Speaker 17 (49:57):
Well, first off, we were very happy in South Carolina.
You're executive right Coastal Caroline is a beautiful place, ten
miles west of the ocean. So I tell me, well,
you can just turn on the lights and open the
doors and students will show up. But this was a
really intriguing opportunity. I've been in West Virginia several times.
The first time, interesting enough, was when I was president

(50:18):
of Southern Utah University and our gymnastics team made an
NC Double Regional and was hosted at the coliseum. So
that was my first time to Morgantown. I've been back
several times since, and it kind of checked the boxes
of what I've always aspired to do in my career.
Like Gordon Gee, I became a president. I was very young,

(50:39):
thirty six, and I remember the boss that kind of
gave him my chance, Bernie Matchet at the University of Utah.
He left Utah to become presidents of Florida for almost
fifteen years. He said, at some point in your career,
you should aspire to be president of an r one
that has an academic medical center that plays athletics at
the highest level and West virgin and to check all

(51:00):
those boxes, and given my familiarity with the state, you know, Appalachia.
We were right on the foothills of Appalachia living in Richmond, Kentucky.
Bria College was just down the road, which, as you know,
serves of almost singularly focused Appalachian student population, and this
was a great opportunity. And at first I kind of
resisted because we were very happy and at coastal things

(51:22):
we were rocking and rolling. But as things progressed and
I got to meet people and have conversations about the
future and got really excited about being at West Virginia
larger school.

Speaker 4 (51:34):
Are one a health system, their massive health system. How
are you going to adjust? What do you have to
do differently as a leader in that context?

Speaker 17 (51:41):
Well, first off, you've got to rely on great people.
And I remember when I first kind of got through
the process and on the other side and when I
was selected, was told there are two people I really
need to focus on keeping.

Speaker 3 (51:54):
One is Albert Wright and one is Rem Baker. I
know we'll talk about athletics. And to the credit of the.

Speaker 17 (51:59):
People before they extended Albert's contract and He's doing an
unbelievable job his whole team. You know, they've got what
twenty five hospitals now in four states, eight billion dollars
in revenue.

Speaker 3 (52:11):
So I'm going to let them do what they do.

Speaker 17 (52:13):
But I've got to get very up to speed with
the intricacies of an academic medical center and support them
any way I can, because that is in many ways
our calling card.

Speaker 3 (52:23):
I mean, you think about I've.

Speaker 17 (52:25):
Heard no kind of health islands in the state of
West Virginia, and the fact that we've got fifty five
counties and now you have access to all sorts of
care through our clinics, through our hospitals, through our system,
through our network, I think is terribly important. And if
there's something we can do to impact the health of
West Virginia's every single day, that's something that I'm going

(52:47):
to get behind one hundred and ten percent. So, yes,
i do have a steep learning curve, but I've been
helped by a lot of very, very smart people who
have been at it longer than I have. But I
hope to think I'm a quick study and I'll get
the hang of it.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
Doctor Michael Benson joining us in studio this Morning New WV. President,
you literally wrote the book on how the modern universities
are structured to biography of Daniel Koit Gilman, who shaped
John Hopkins University and really set the model for American
universities speaking of sprawling medical centers. So what inspiration or
do you draw inspiration from how he really set the

(53:22):
standard for the American university all the way back in
the eighteen hundreds. Well, how much time do you have,
Well we do have a break coming up in about
eight minutes, But go on, I have.

Speaker 17 (53:31):
Always been fascinating with Johns Hopkins. And don't forget the
S on the end of that Johns, because that was
his grandmother's maiden name and it's got a very interesting name.
But anyway, i'd been to campus, my niece went to
school there. But you think about Harvard, for example, had
a two hundred and fourty year head start on Johns Hopkins.
But remember during COVID, they would run that kind of
COVID ticker on the bottom of any screen, and the

(53:54):
source was what Johns Hopkins medicine, because they were kind
of the purveyor of all things COVID related, numbers, data points,
et cetera. So you know, the more I got into
learning about Hopkins, and the kind of the story goes
back to when I had my third inauguration. The first
two were okay, but I decided the third one I

(54:15):
was really going to invest in reading the standard, kind
of gold standard speeches given by presidents at their inauguration.
So I found Daniel quit Gilman's. I'd heard his name before,
but didn't know much about him. Eighteen seventy six February
twenty second. He spoke for ninety minutes. And the remarkable
thing is he spelled out kind of twelve goals for
the university, And when the university had its one hundred

(54:37):
and twenty fifth anniversary a few years ago, they did
this big coffee table book and lo and behold, out
of the twelve they accomplished just about every one of them.
So it was a very bold kind of statement of
what they wanted to do, one of which was to
create the first ever modern research university, which took the
German model and emphasis on research primary research, and the

(54:58):
British model emphasis on teaching and put it together and
now it's the model. It's they've attempted to replicate it
at all. The private schools that kind of spouted up
in the latter part of the nineteenth century, Stanford, Chicago,
Clark University, even Cornell Tulane, all based on making the
research university focus on what it does well, and that

(55:21):
is brilliant faculty members who discover new knowledge, who perfect it,
who transmit it, disseminate it, and apply it to society.

Speaker 3 (55:30):
So if I were to ask you.

Speaker 17 (55:30):
Look around this room at all the things we use
from the algorithm for our phones and Google, chances are
it came off a campus of a research university. And
today I'm really concerned that what is happening is we're
kind of cutting off at the knees these unbelievable places
that have turned out so much technology that we have

(55:51):
that we take advantage of every single day. And you
can go through what West Virginia did last year almost
two hundred and seventy two million dollars in sponsored research.

Speaker 3 (55:59):
That's a record for us.

Speaker 17 (56:00):
So I'm concerned about what's happening. But we have a
plan moving forward, and I really think the pendulum is
going to swing back and people are going to realize the.

Speaker 3 (56:07):
Secret sauce of Americans.

Speaker 17 (56:10):
America's success as an economy is our technology, and that
technology is inexorably impacted by research universities.

Speaker 4 (56:18):
Professor, and I call you professor because I know you
still like to teach, I think at least one course
a year, but you also know what it's like to
be a faculty member. You've been there, You've taught. No secret.
Wvu's had to make some changes, eliminated twenty eight majors,
one hundred and forty faculty positions. I'm sure you've looked
at those decisions as you've come in. Anything that needs
to be revisited there.

Speaker 17 (56:40):
I don't want to say yet I've had some time
to look at kind of what happened.

Speaker 3 (56:44):
But as I told you as before.

Speaker 17 (56:46):
We got on the air, I'm about what is in
front of us right now and what's in the future.
So some hard decisions were made, but that's in the past.
I'm a humanist, so obviously my love is for the
every college where I have my faculty appointment in history,
but I also appreciate how important the STEM fields are,
and of course academic medicine. So I want the university

(57:09):
community to know that while my discipline is history and
I am as as I said, I kind of focus
on the humanities. The university is for everybody, and as
we know, students when they come to campus, their money
is portable. And if you don't have what they want
in terms of a degree offering, feeling safe on campus,

(57:30):
having a residence hall, what they feel comfortable with, they're
going to go elsewhere. So it is a doggy dog
kind of recruiting world. And our job as West Virginia
University is to make sure we get students.

Speaker 3 (57:42):
To visit campus. We sell them on the.

Speaker 17 (57:44):
Opportunity, they appreciate what it's like to come to a
land Grant university in a place like Morgantown, which is
really a true college town, and we can beat out
our competition.

Speaker 1 (57:53):
Doctor Michael Benson, new w President, joining us here at
the Cove Insurance Studios this morning. It has been tough
for faculty and staff over the last year or two
years with the academic transformation. Recently they lost their voting
seats on the Board of governors. But how do you
envision the faculty and staff's role in shaping the vision

(58:13):
of the university.

Speaker 17 (58:14):
But where we've had initial conversations about a strategic plan
and we've shared it with faculty members of staff members.
It's going to roll out here after we have a
retreat with our board here in a couple of weeks.
But I see no decision I make is ever in
a vacuum. When they talk about my strategic plan, it's
not my strategic plan, it's our strategic plan. And there
has to be buy in from facultying staff. They have

(58:36):
to feel like they've had some input. But we're also
on a pretty aggressive timeline. We're not going to take
a lot of time we'd smith in a a mission
statement because that can kind of bog you down. So
I really want people to feel that it's aggressive, it's
forward thinking, it's progressive, and I want them to feel
a part of it. And you're going to hear more

(58:57):
about it here in the next little While.

Speaker 4 (58:59):
The university is lose students, population is decreasing, how do
you combat that?

Speaker 17 (59:03):
Well, I'm happy to report that initial numbers on at
least deposits and registrations are very encouraging. So it's not
just West Virginia. If you look at kind of the
swath of states in are kind of the that belt
south of the Mason Dixon line. As you know, the
SEC schools are doing well. Coastal Carolina is booming. We
want to take some of those kind of strategies and

(59:26):
apply them here. But I'm happy to report that it
looks like we're going to have a good, solid, strong
freshman class and hopefully staunch that persistent decline that we've had.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
Doctor Michael Benson joining us here in the Cove Insurance
Studios this morning, the new DOUBLEVU president got a step
aside for a break. If you have a question, shoot
us a text at three or four talk three oh four.
That's three or four, talk three oh four. We'll talk
some athletics when we return. This is talk line from
the Encoba Insurance Studios.

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Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
Met your news talk line continues New W President doctor
Michael Benson joining us in studio for the entire hour.
If you've got a question, textus three or four Talk
three or four. We'll get to those coming up after
the news break. Want to talk some athletics. I know
many of you have already texted in asking questions about athletics.
First of all, you're an athlete. Played JV basketball at BYU,

(01:01:33):
played basketball over at Oxford. You're a marathon runner? Is
that right?

Speaker 3 (01:01:37):
That was a long time ago. I have a brand
new left knee.

Speaker 17 (01:01:41):
So I went to Orange Theory at six o'clock this
morning and did the elliptical and the rower that's kind
of and I do hot yoga. But yeah, I used
to run quite a bit and two forty one is
my best marathon time, which isn't too bad, but that
was when I was eighteen.

Speaker 3 (01:01:55):
So that's a that's a lifetime.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
So what's your full when it comes to the role
of athletics in higher education.

Speaker 17 (01:02:04):
Well, I mean a very kind of overused term about
the front porch of the university is true, but you
got to get people past the front porch.

Speaker 3 (01:02:12):
You got to get in the living room, in the
dining room, in the kitchen.

Speaker 17 (01:02:16):
And if athletics can be that hook to get people
on our campus and get us familiar with everything that
we offer at West Virginia University, whether it's our health
system or an academic program, or if they're an adult
learner and they.

Speaker 3 (01:02:29):
Want to come back to school or online program.

Speaker 17 (01:02:31):
So you think about two Dave, the articles, the press
coverage that is given to a university, If you were
to kind of segregate out, how much of that is athletics,
the lion's share of that is. Now we have an
unbelievable w medicine system, and it gets a lot of attention,
as it should. But as I understand, Morgantown becomes the

(01:02:52):
biggest town and the biggest city in West Virginia on
a Saturday afternoon. So I can't wait until we get
to experience a live football game.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
Yeah, just a couple of weeks away. So athletics director
Rin Baker, his name's already come up as a possible
candidate with other jobs. Oklahoma came up recently. What do
you see his future being here at West Virginia.

Speaker 17 (01:03:12):
Well, you'll have to ask him, but I know what
he's told me, and he's told me he's very happy here.
His wife and daughters are happy here. As I said,
we've extended his contract. He's doing an unbelievable job. He's
the new chair of the athletic directors within the Big twelve,
and I've been on a few calls already with that group.
He's very well respected. You look at the coaches that
he just extended a few days ago. The higher rich

(01:03:35):
Rod has gotten people really animated and very excited and
coas Hodge. I mean, I'm really impressed with the operation
he runs and how well he's doing in terms of
revenue generation and forward thinking about where we want to
take the university and how important Without a pro team
here and the only kind of power for school in

(01:03:56):
West Virginia, we get a lot of attention and a
lot of people kind of hinge there. They're highs and
lows on how well we do. I get that and
I appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (01:04:03):
So we're all in.

Speaker 1 (01:04:05):
You said you extended is car. What's the extension for
the contract?

Speaker 3 (01:04:08):
The terms? We've took it up.

Speaker 17 (01:04:11):
I want to say it's past twenty thirty one now,
so the term other details of.

Speaker 3 (01:04:17):
Public document, but I don't have it off.

Speaker 1 (01:04:18):
But you've locked him in ink.

Speaker 3 (01:04:19):
We've blocked him in. Yes, sir.

Speaker 4 (01:04:21):
I want to talk about revenue. You talked about growing
revenue in athletics. So we're paying students now. I think
this year it's twenty and a half million dollars. That's
going to continue to go up and up in terms
of that cap that schools can pay. Where we going
to come up with a cash because we're going to
have to have the cash to remain relevant. It's an
arms race.

Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
It is an arms race.

Speaker 4 (01:04:43):
How were going to do that?

Speaker 17 (01:04:44):
It used to be arms races were kind of limited
to facilities, and everybody was kind of core. I mean,
the paying athletes whole.

Speaker 3 (01:04:53):
It's a whole new deal.

Speaker 17 (01:04:53):
Now the House settlement has changed everything and it's a
whole new landscape. So to your question about how we
generate revenues, whether it's sponsorships, whether it's revenue games, whether
it's unique opportunities that we create for the fans and
the fan experience, season ticket sales. Understand our season ticket
for football.

Speaker 3 (01:05:12):
It is a very hot, red hot.

Speaker 17 (01:05:14):
Base right now, and of course you have to come
up with other ways, creative ways to do it. Sponsorships,
as I mentioned, is a key one. But this is
the new normal, and it's not just us. I mean,
we want to be competitive in the Big twelve, a
Power four conference, and to be in that upper quota quartile,
we do have to kind of be all in as
we are with that twenty a half million dollar revenue share.

Speaker 4 (01:05:35):
So we've got one point eight one point seven and
change in terms of people. We're a very small state
or an impovers state, let's just call it what it is.
We have issues around employment. Can WVU be successful with
that base? Can we continue to raise that kind of
money given the base that we have to raise.

Speaker 17 (01:05:52):
It, I would say categorically, absolutely we can be successful.
One thing I've come to appreciate being here in just
a short amount of time is the toughness and the
grit of West Virginians. And they will not argue for
their limitations, is my mom used to say, quoting.

Speaker 3 (01:06:07):
George Washington Carver.

Speaker 17 (01:06:09):
Start where you are, with what you have, do your best,
and never ever be satisfied. So I see in West
Virginians this kind of stoutness. If you will, they can
overcome some of those obstacles that you're talking about. And
with what we've got, we've been incredibly competitive. If you
look at Liar field standings, for example, we came into
the spring sports second in the Big twelve, behind YU

(01:06:31):
in the top twenty five. Now, the fact that we
don't offer some spring sports like outdoor and indoor track
and field or softball.

Speaker 3 (01:06:38):
We are limited in getting some of those additional points.

Speaker 17 (01:06:40):
But baseball did incredibly well, women's basketball finished incredibly strong
men's basketball, So pound for pound, we get a lot
out of what we have, and I think I know
we're going to continue to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:52):
Doctor Michael Benson joining us in the studio this morning,
the new WU president. So what do you see when
it comes to athletics is the biggest challenge on the horizon.

Speaker 17 (01:07:02):
I think the biggest challenge I know for our coaches
is kind of roster management. When coach Rodriguez has a
roster of seventy one new players. You know, there used
to be a continuity. You recruited a young man or
young woman out of high school and they stayed with
you for four years. Now you never know what's going
to happen.

Speaker 3 (01:07:19):
I mean you could.

Speaker 17 (01:07:20):
We had a couple of kids at Coastal that transferred
mid season, and so I don't know how coaches handle it.
We're here to support the man anyway we can. But
one thing I am concerned about is that lost on
all this talk of revenue share is the focus on
getting a degree. So the numbers on the kids that
go into the transfer portal and how many are not
picked up, think about that. That's a lost scholarship and

(01:07:42):
a lost chance to finish that degree. So we used
to talk a lot about academic progress rate and graduation
rates and so forth as relates to student athletes, which
by the way, are usually higher than non student athletes
on most campuses because they have those services, the tutoring
when they go on the road and so.

Speaker 3 (01:07:58):
Forth kind of the students.

Speaker 17 (01:08:00):
But I would argue that we have multiple challenges with
but athletics is a means to an end, and the
great majority of our student athletes in WVU will probably
not play on Sundays. They probably will not play professionally,
So what does that mean. They've got to finish their degree.
And I would argue our biggest challenge is to make
sure we do not lose focus sight on the primary

(01:08:24):
purpose for athletics on a campus, which is to provide
an education and opportunity for those student athletes.

Speaker 1 (01:08:30):
Doctor Michael Benson joining us here in the co Insurance
studios this morning. If you have a question for him,
text us three or four. Talk three or four. We'll
get to some of those coming up on the other
side of the news. Oh, we have so much more
to dive into. We're just barely scratching the surface. Are
you prepared for the second.

Speaker 3 (01:08:44):
Half of the show, Yes, sir, Yeah, I'm warmed up now.

Speaker 1 (01:08:47):
Doctor Benson joining us here in the studio again. If
you've got a question, give us a text three or
four Talk three or four will work those in here
in the second half hour Dave and TJ and the
and Co Insurance Studios. Oh big. Thanks by the way
to Shauna john Over at the former Metro News anchor
and with Communications at w helping bring all this together today.
This is talk Line on Metro News, the voice of

(01:09:08):
West Virginia. It is eleven thirty. Time to get a
news update. Let's check in with the Metro News radio
network find out what's happening all across the great state
of West Virginia. West Virginia Metro News.

Speaker 20 (01:09:19):
I'm Chris Laurence Say, Mercer County man who's behind bars
charges of the killing of his dad and wounding of
his mother. Twenty four year old Joshua Hubenach of Princeton
charged with first degree murder, two council malicious wounding, and
assault during the commission of a felony. It happened about
twelve thirty Wednesday morning at a home on shy And
Lane near Princeton. Sheriff Allen Christian tells Metro News they're
still trying to figure out what happened, but it would

(01:09:41):
appear it was a domestic fight that turned into a
lot more.

Speaker 6 (01:09:43):
Deceased and his son were fighting over what we think
was a firearm. Might have been some earlier claims of
the sun may wanting to hurt himselves of the dad.
Appears that the dad was trying to prevent that from happening,
and it is escalated to a full scale FI. We
are deceed and we see multiple stab wounded.

Speaker 20 (01:10:04):
Michael Hubinek was dead at the scene, and Sheriff Christian
said his mother was bleeding profusely and was very nearly
bleeding out, but deputies managed to save her life with
tourniquets in a quick response for ems. Joshua Hubineck was
arrested and is in jail awaiting the charges. Bond set
at a half million dollars cash. Governor Patrick Morrisey is
said to be in Wheeling the same afternoon. The Governor

(01:10:25):
will be visiting with Ohio County emergency officials and talking
more about that federal disaster declaration issued this week for
the Father's Day floods in the Wheeling area and in
the Fairmont area.

Speaker 1 (01:10:35):
A pack court room in Beckley.

Speaker 20 (01:10:36):
Today where a lawsuit challenging the state's vaccination laws is underway.
You're listening to metro Neews, the voice of West Virginia.

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Your radio doesn't melt.

Speaker 20 (01:11:46):
The National Weather Services issued a heat advice restarting this
hour and stretching through eight o'clock to night for fifteen
counties in the western part of the state. Heat index
in those areas today will top one hundred and four degrees.
Sharon thunderstorm activity expected to return to ten workers in
Preston County's probation office now working in a new space
after mold was detected in their office at the county

(01:12:07):
Courthouse in Kingwood. Those workers have been relocated to the
county's election center. From the Metro News anchored ask, I'm
Chris Lawrence.

Speaker 1 (01:12:33):
Socc line continues, We're talking with new WV president, doctor
Michael Benson. Texter questioned into us at three h four
Talk threeh four. This is a text question Texter wants
to know. This is from Bill at the Northern Outpost,
Dave and TJ. Question for doctor Benson. During the seventies, eighties,
and nineties, the College of Engineering was prominent in the

(01:12:54):
WU curriculum. What is your vision for engineering students regarding
power generation, AI and data center technology in today's fast
paced development.

Speaker 3 (01:13:05):
Well, I'll answer that two ways.

Speaker 17 (01:13:06):
First, the very first visit I made to a college
was to the Statle of College of Engineering. I was
incredibly impressed with the students I met, the faculty. I'm
a big Formula one fan, so the fact that they
make a car and compete in a competition from scratch
was really good fun. And talking to those students, they're
very cognizant of the ever changing technological world that they're entering,

(01:13:30):
and AI is certainly a part of that. We're looking
at ways that we can do some kind of university
wide projects that encompasses everything, not just engineering, not just
the Everly College, not just medicine, but AI impacts everything
that we're doing, and it's changing just about hourly, so
you'll hear more about that. But that is one of

(01:13:51):
our most outstanding colleges. I've been at campuses where we
had kind of smaller engineering programs, but from mind safety
to structural chemical to electrical engineering, we offered all. And
our job is to make sure we're giving the best
education in these students so they're trained to enter a
world that is perpetually changing, and make sure they're adaptive

(01:14:13):
and they can enter a workforce. The chances are given
AI is going to change our workforce, it is already,
and if they and making sure they can handle it.

Speaker 4 (01:14:24):
Mike, I want to talk about the Board of Governors.
I think you had your first meeting yesterday. As I'm
sure you're aware, there's been some press lately, a little
politics that tends to happen with a group the type
a's that I imagine you would have on that board
who weren't the best for their university. You know, sometimes
you get a little clash. Your predecessor, doctor Gee was

(01:14:44):
quick to remind everyone on the board that we need
to do what's best. I'm paraphrasing for West Virginia University.
What's your relationship with the board at this point, and
how will you manage those kinds of instances if they
come up? Moving forward?

Speaker 17 (01:14:57):
Well, every school where I've been I've had a board
to whom I to which I reported. So this is
by far the largest. At Coastal I had seventeen, which
was pretty good sized. But here with the additions that
the governor made, it's a big board.

Speaker 3 (01:15:12):
Then you add in my wife. I've got twenty one bosses.
It's you know, I met many of them through the
interview process. It was really impressed by their commitment to
West Virginia, many of whom had gone to school here,
had some tie to the university.

Speaker 17 (01:15:27):
They went back decades and I saw firsthand what this
place meant to them. And you know, no one's asked
them to do this. Of course, I'm appointed by the governor.
At other places, they were elected by the legislature.

Speaker 3 (01:15:43):
Some states actually run for you know, regencies, like they
do in California.

Speaker 17 (01:15:47):
So you know, this is time away from their businesses,
from their families, from their other interests. So I really
I want to first thank them for their willingness to serve.
And number two, I think it's really important to emphasize
that they want what's best for university and my job
as presidents that draw that out of the board but
also the entire institution and to work together. I mean,

(01:16:08):
the university is going to long out last any of
our tenures, so my job is to build on the
really solid foundation that's in place and to make sure
the board has the information they need to make informed decisions. Yes,
we had our first meeting yesterday and went very very well.
I mentioned going down to Fairmont last night. I met
the chairman of our board's mother in law, Candy, who's
on the city council. So you never knowing kind of

(01:16:31):
a moment of serendipity whom you'll meet. But I'm excited
to work with them. I'm really excited that they bring
to the table backgrounds in law, in medicine and sports
management and accounting, in entrepreneurship, in public service, and teaching
and farming. I mean, I'm just going through the list
and thinking of what their backgrounds are. You can tap

(01:16:52):
into that and they can bring to bear that experience
on decisions that impact the university on our budget and
so forth.

Speaker 4 (01:16:58):
But you're the vision castor it's your job to set
the vision. If they don't adopt that vision, or if
they do adopt that vision, is that your failure or
your success? How do you view that?

Speaker 3 (01:17:09):
Yes to that?

Speaker 17 (01:17:09):
I mean I would say it is my failure and
my job is to yes, cast a vision as you
said it, but make sure people buy into it. And
we've already had a conversation with a few board members
and we'll do it or I treat as I said,
in a couple of weeks, and I'm pretty excited about
it because we're going to take something that's very familiar
with people, very familiar to people, and use it kind
of as a mnemonic device of where we're going as

(01:17:31):
an institution with a much more succinct direct mission statement. Basically,
you know, we looked at a lot of different mission statements.
We said most of them are too long.

Speaker 3 (01:17:42):
And if I were to ask you TJ, what is
our current mission statement.

Speaker 4 (01:17:45):
At WVU, I would fail. There you go.

Speaker 17 (01:17:48):
So we're going to rectify that, and we're gonna as
I go around campus, I want to ask people, you know,
what is our what's our purpose, what's our.

Speaker 3 (01:17:54):
Vision, what's our mission? And so stay tuned.

Speaker 17 (01:17:58):
I know I'm excitedly say edge now that I think
about it, but.

Speaker 3 (01:18:02):
Hashtag hard edge. There you go. Yeah, I earned success.

Speaker 17 (01:18:06):
Heard I've heard Coach Rodriguez talk about that, and we'll
incorporate some of that in there.

Speaker 1 (01:18:11):
Okay, Doctor Michael Benson joining us here in studio. The
other finalist for your job was Speaker of the House
of Delegates, Roger Hanshaw. Have you had a chance to
speak to him and do you plan to?

Speaker 17 (01:18:22):
I am meeting him next week, so meeting him and
the governor. The governor first and then Speaker Hanshaw, and
we both have a tied to Notre Dame. I really
respect his public service and what he's done for the
state in the elected office and his business. I know
he's a very accomplished attorney. So I look forward to
getting to know him and I look forward to working
with him.

Speaker 4 (01:18:41):
Gordon was very active with the legislature. You kind of
have to be Mike in this position. You're more than
just and you've figured this out. I'm sure you're more
than just a college president. Yes, when you're the president
of West Virginia University, are you going to interact in
the same way, have the same kind of role with
the legislature with the executive How are you going to
man it? And maybe that's new for you. Maybe it

(01:19:02):
wasn't like that at Coastal.

Speaker 3 (01:19:03):
No, It's been like that everywhere I've gone.

Speaker 17 (01:19:05):
So I've had to deal with the legislators now in Utah, Kentucky,
South Carolina, and West Virginia.

Speaker 3 (01:19:10):
And while they're similarities, they're also very different.

Speaker 17 (01:19:13):
You know, in some states it's a legislative dominated or
executive dominated state government. Here, I get the feeling that,
you know, the governor is very aggressive, he's charged I think,
a very bold kind of path forward, but you've got
to pay attention to the House of Delegates, to the
rest of the other legislators.

Speaker 3 (01:19:31):
I tell people it's like a donor. You have to
steward them. You have to report back how you're using
their funds.

Speaker 17 (01:19:37):
So I treat very seriously the state funds that we get.
And if you were to look at the legislature as
one of our biggest donors, how do.

Speaker 3 (01:19:44):
You treat them. You stay in touch with them, You tell.

Speaker 17 (01:19:47):
Them what you're doing with the outcomes of the investments
they've made in you as an institution.

Speaker 3 (01:19:51):
And I plan on spend a lot of time in Charleston.

Speaker 17 (01:19:53):
I actually enjoy that part. And you know I teach.
I've taught American government. Here's a little Civics class for you.

Speaker 3 (01:20:00):
The first Amendment, I asked you, is all the time.
What is guaranteed in the First Amendment?

Speaker 17 (01:20:04):
Freedom of assembly, freedom from religion, freedom to practice religion,
to the speech, press, etc. They always leave off the
last part, and the last part of the First Amendment
is the right to petition the government for a redress
of grievances. So in case in our First Amendment, right
is the ability the right to go up to Charleston

(01:20:27):
and make a case for your cause, and so I'm
gonna do that, and I'm going to do it aggressively
and passionately, and I hope you feel that. I'm really
excited about getting up there.

Speaker 4 (01:20:34):
They should still do that last part in the House
of Representatives too, but it's kind of taking a change.
But anyway, we'll digress.

Speaker 1 (01:20:40):
One more text question here before the break. Texter would
like to know what is the plan to grow satellite
campuses such as w Tech in Beckley.

Speaker 3 (01:20:48):
Well, I've been to both places.

Speaker 17 (01:20:50):
Paul Kreider, our provost, had a really important role at
our Kaiser campus. By the way, Tangent here, Dave, excuse me,
our baseball coach at Carolina, Kevin Chanall graduated at Potomac State,
played baseball one of my favorite outfielders, Graham Brown, a
couple of years ago at Coastal, another Potomac State grad
So I went there first, then I went down to Beckley.

(01:21:12):
I've told both presidents there, t and Jerry, respectively. I
intend to get out to those campuses at least once
a semester. We're actually changing the reporting line.

Speaker 3 (01:21:21):
They will no longer report to the provost. They're going
to report directly to me.

Speaker 17 (01:21:25):
I think that's a very It's not just symbolic, it's
a you look at what are those communities without those campuses?
Now I understand what they mean, and I should mention
in our Beckley campus, they've implemented a metro rate and
captured what both places have captured some of those borderline
students that are coming to their campuses that here before

(01:21:45):
had not been coming. So enrollment looks strong at both places.
And I'm going to pay a lot of attention to
both institutions and make sure they feel supported and they
feel part of our larger university.

Speaker 1 (01:21:54):
Got a squeeze at a break We're talking to doctor
Michael Benson, New WV Presidents come back to the Incove
Insurance studios in just a moment.

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Speaker 1 (01:23:22):
Doctor Michael Benson joining us in studio New w President.
If you've got a question, go ahead and give us
a text three h four talk three h four. We'll
try to get to as many of those as we
possibly can. Several of you have kind of asked the
same questions, so I'll try to kind of glomet all together.
Whether you've been at Eastern Kentucky Snow College Coastal Carolina,

(01:23:43):
you have overseen capital improvements and part of that obviously
is the fundraising aspect. So how important and what role
does philanthropy and fundraising have to play in the success
of a university.

Speaker 17 (01:23:57):
It is absolutely irreplaceable. It's indispensable, and it's in many
ways that margin of excellence that you get the state support,
you get contracts, you have auxiliary revenue, you have tuition
and fees. But what is it that sets you apart.
It's that private support. That's the philanthropy. It's gifts, it's
contracts or support from corporation. So it's true everywhere I've gone,

(01:24:17):
I've focused on that. I've had a chance to do
it here already, and I really enjoy it. And you know,
I used to sell suits at Nordstrom and my father
was a cookwear salesman. I went to school at Stanford
but found his passion was sales, So I think it
kind of runs in the family. And I love selling
the vision of education because education is the one thing,

(01:24:38):
Dave and TJ that can change the world. I don't
mean to sound Cinderella about it or Pollyanna, but you
look at every problem that our society faces, there's not
one thing that education cannot do to fix it. So
access to it has changed my life. It's changed my
family's life. And so when you can sit not going
to need a knee with a donor and twin a

(01:24:58):
philanthropic design with an institutional need, that is a magical
moment and something I really really enjoy.

Speaker 3 (01:25:06):
So we're going to do a lot of it here.

Speaker 17 (01:25:07):
You know, last year the university raised two hundred and
eighty two million dollars, which was I think a near record.
I've told Cindy the folks at the foundation, our new
standard is three hundred million dollars a year to raise
from our alumni, our friends or supporters. Given our alumni base,
the number of living alumni, our institutional history, we've been
around since eighteen sixty seven, there's no reason we can't

(01:25:30):
do three hundred million dollars a year every single year.

Speaker 4 (01:25:32):
I want to talk about the arms race. We mentioned
it with athletics, but I think it's broader. It's universities
in general these days, and as you know, WVU a
few years back had some financial issues. You have to
mind the shop going forward. There's been critics that have
said too much infrastructure, too quickly put you in a
bad financial spot. Yet I think you kind of have

(01:25:54):
to have that though, if you want to compete and
get students, how do you balance the two.

Speaker 3 (01:25:58):
Well, I've found I call it Kurve repeal.

Speaker 17 (01:26:01):
If a student pulls up to campus, a prospective student,
and the campus is run down and it looks tired,
guess what They're going to go elsewhere? So you have
to constantly keep your inventory fresh. I have the incredible
good fortune to be in Stuart Hall, a beautiful, old
historic building, but it's got some challenges. We have some
deferred maintenance issues at WU that go to address. But
we had the advantage in Carolina for a local option

(01:26:24):
penny sales tax, And I've talked to a few people about,
you know, why not take advantage of all those visitors
that are coming from different places to Morgantown and let
them help pay for some of our infrastructure needs. I
know we do it with a roadstax, but we did
a penny sales tax that supported solely education K twelve
and Coastal Carolina and our Technical College. So in many ways,

(01:26:44):
you have to be creative in ways that you can
generate revenue. We're not going to get I think a
whole lot of money from the state for infrastructure. So
you either do it from private donations, you do it
through bond issuance, whether it's a revenue bond or a
general obligation bond. But we have to stay current with
yes our needs in terms of academic space but also
living space. I had a conversation the other day with

(01:27:06):
some of our staff about a sophomore residency requirement. You
think about how important that freshman year is, and you
require freshmen to live on campus, It makes all the
difference because they feel this kind of inexorable tie to campus.
Same thing goes for the sophomore year. If you can
keep them close by, keep an eye on them, make
sure they have kind of that infrastructure around them to

(01:27:26):
be successful that ecosystem that's going to lead to two things,
higher retention rates and the thing that we're all focused
on a graduation rate. So infrastructure has a inextricable tie
to that as well.

Speaker 1 (01:27:39):
Doctor Michael Benson joining us here in the studio. We
got them until noon before we got to take our
final break here and then I want to get some
text messages after that. You said you want to be visible.
You want to be accessible. You're going to go on
a tour of at about eighteen countiesn't a week? Is
that the plan? Here coming up?

Speaker 3 (01:27:54):
Dave? I even wrote them down, so I make sure. Okay,
here we go. This is starting on Monday.

Speaker 6 (01:27:59):
Brook.

Speaker 17 (01:28:00):
These are all counties Brook, Ohio, Marshall, wetzel Wood, Jackson, Kawa,
Kana Kana. Thank you, Lewis Harrison, Marion, Barbara Randolph up.

Speaker 1 (01:28:12):
Sure and you being the history buff you are. I
saw the list. You're hitting all the historical places, Independence Hall,
You're going to Blinter Hassen Island, the Mother's Day Shrine
down in Grafton. You're hitting the historical places. I see
what you did there. I see history buff. He wants
to check some of these places out.

Speaker 3 (01:28:30):
I wish I could take credit.

Speaker 17 (01:28:31):
All the credit goes to Travis's team and other folks
that have helped put it together. But yeah, I mean,
you learn a lot about a place by seeing these
historical sites and how they're valued and what they mean
to a community.

Speaker 1 (01:28:42):
I can't resist this question. I'll throw this one at you.
Here's we go into the break. Sliced pepperoni or stick
pepperoni in your Pepperoni roles.

Speaker 3 (01:28:50):
So I was listening to a show.

Speaker 17 (01:28:52):
It was The Three Guys before the game, and they
had coach Sabans and they were talking about it and
kind of the sophisticates.

Speaker 3 (01:29:01):
Really go with the stick Pepperoni. If you know what
you're tired about, you go with the stick pepperary.

Speaker 1 (01:29:05):
Doctor Benson, let's talk. Joining us in studio. Hey don't
sleep on ground pepperoni by the way, just throwing it
out there. We'll get to some of your text messages
before we call it a show. Coming up at the
top of the hour, Doctor Michael Benson, joining us here
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(01:29:48):
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Speaker 16 (01:29:54):
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Speaker 1 (01:29:57):
It all started with a vision.

Speaker 16 (01:29:59):
We've gone a lot alongside West Virginia, becoming part of
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Speaker 24 (01:30:16):
The free Metro News TV app is the place to
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Speaker 1 (01:31:04):
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(01:31:25):
fifty million dollars. Mega Millions jackpot is one hundred and
twenty million dollars. So go ahead play today. A couple
of texts don't want to pass along to you, This texter,
says mister President. One of my athletes that I coached.
When that I coached went on to Coastal Carolina. There
with marine biology degree, became a trainer for animals at

(01:31:46):
Pirates Theater in Myrtle. I motivated so many students that
anything is possible. With her picture, WW needs the same
commitment for US school teachers to use, says the texter.

Speaker 17 (01:31:58):
I'm I agree, i'd I'd love to connect with her
and ask her about her student One thing our communications
people are really focused on are telling stories, you know,
the stories about students, about facultying staff and the difference
they're making in the lives of our students. And I
think nothing's more powerful than a story of success. So
I appreciate that, and I hope I can connect with her.

Speaker 1 (01:32:20):
This text says doctor Benson. Welcome to the Wu family.
I live in Preston County and my daughter will be
a senior at Coastal Carolina this year. You did a
great job at Coastal and I'm sure you'll do the
same here. Welcome and let's go, says the Texter.

Speaker 3 (01:32:36):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (01:32:37):
What are you doing bringing West Virginia's down to Coastal
Carolina when you were down there?

Speaker 3 (01:32:41):
Well, I think they do it on their own day,
quite frankly.

Speaker 17 (01:32:44):
Fifty six County is what I've heard it called county,
and you're going the wrong way the highway.

Speaker 3 (01:32:50):
Lots of folks.

Speaker 17 (01:32:51):
Down there are former chair of the board at a place,
Vil Perdy, one of our donors just down the road.

Speaker 3 (01:32:57):
We had lunch with them a short while ago, but
wonderful place. And I love the kind of back and
forth between the two communities.

Speaker 1 (01:33:03):
I got like another four pages of questions I wanted
to ask, but with we got about a minute and
a half here. I did just want to ask you briefly.
Your brother recently passed away. He was an award winning
editorial cartoonist. What inspiration do you draw from him?

Speaker 17 (01:33:17):
Steve had no fear, He didn't care if people loved
or hated him. He used to say his cartoons were
really the gold standard. Was how much hate mail he
got the difference between Steve and I like people to
like me, But I really admire his courage and his
temerity and his in the face of being very unpopular,
he wasn't afraid to kind of be that fourth rail

(01:33:40):
and kind of speak truth to power. And at his
funeral service last Saturday, I had a chance to speak.

Speaker 3 (01:33:47):
And he was an amazing talent. But he was a
wonderful brother, and I loved him, and I'm going to
miss him terribly.

Speaker 1 (01:33:53):
Did he ever feature you in a cartoon?

Speaker 17 (01:33:55):
He told me if I ever ran for office, I
would he would come after me. I thought, wow, Okay,
well I guess I'm not running for office. He did
caricatures of our family and and people. He did that
all the time, and those mean even more now that
he's gone.

Speaker 4 (01:34:08):
Any of them hanging in your office.

Speaker 17 (01:34:10):
I have one the Country Roads, and he did when
John Denver died in nineteen ninety seven. It says take
me home, Country Road, and it has John Denver walking
down a tree lined street with his guitar on his back.
And his wife gave me the original last week and
it now hangs in my office.

Speaker 1 (01:34:25):
How cool.

Speaker 3 (01:34:26):
So I invite you all to come and see it.

Speaker 4 (01:34:27):
Would love to.

Speaker 1 (01:34:28):
Well, Hey, thanks for coming in studios spending the hour
with us. Very gracious. I know you've got a lot
going on here in the first week. Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (01:34:34):
We really appreciate it and enjoying it immensely.

Speaker 1 (01:34:36):
Thank you, jo W President, doctor min Benson. If you
missed any of it, we'll have a post for you
over the podcast section. Talk to you tomorrow. Talk Line
on Metro News, The Voice of West Virginia