INSTITUTE, W.Va. – A dedication ceremony to formally rename the building that houses the administrative offices of West Virginia State University’s (WVSU) land-grant administration programs has been set for Friday, May 13, at 11:30 a.m.
Formerly known as the ACEOP Building, it will now be named the Dr. R. Charles Byers Land-Grant Administration Building in honor of long-time WVSU professor and administrator Dr. R. Charles Byers.
The naming ceremony will take place at the building and will feature remarks from WVSU President Ericke Cage and WVSU Interim Vice President for Research and Public Service Dr. Ami Smith, as well as Byers and others. In the event of rain, the ceremony will take place in the auditorium of the Davis Fine Arts Building.
Parking at the building will not be available on the day of the ceremony. The university will run a shuttle from the parking lot of the Wilson University Union to the building dedication ceremony beginning at 11 a.m. Following the ceremony, the shuttle will return to the University Union parking lot, and those in attendance are encouraged to attend a reception for Byers at the art gallery inside the Davis Fine Arts Building.
A 1968 graduate of WVSU, Byers served the university in a variety of capacities over a career that spanned more than 40 years.
Byers joined the WVSU faculty in 1972 and spent the next 17 years as an associate professor of teacher education. He served for 12 years as the Vice President for Planning and Advancement, Title III Director and Executive Director for the WVSU Research and Development Corporation before being named Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.
He had retired as Provost of the University in 2014 after 41 years of service at WVSU. He returned to WVSU as Interim Provost in July 2019, and later served from May through August 2020 as the University’s Interim President, becoming the first alumni of WVSU to serve in that capacity.
In 2015, Byers, an accomplished painter and sketch artist, published “A Place We Love So Dear: A Collection of Campus Drawings,” featuring pen and ink drawings of every building on the WVSU campus.
Byers is a 1968 graduate of WVSU with a bachelor’s degree in art education. He later earned a master’s of fine arts degree from The Ohio State University while working as a commercial artist and art teacher in Columbus, Ohio. Later, Byers earned a doctorate degree from Kent State University in higher education administration.
Byers is married to the former Edithe Rosebourgh of Charleston, a retired public school educator. They are the parents of three adult children, and five grandchildren.
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West Virginia State University is a public, land grant, historically black university, which has evolved into a fully accessible, racially integrated, and multi-generational institution, located in Institute, W.Va. As a “living laboratory of human relations,” the university is a community of students, staff, and faculty committed to academic growth, service, and preservation of the racial and cultural diversity of the institution. Its mission is to meet the higher education and economic development needs of the state and region through innovative teaching and applied research.