MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A new position at West Virginia University opened the door for advancement for a long-time student life leader.
Corey Farris, dean of students since 2010, assumed the position of associate vice president and dean of students July 1.
Farris earned a bachelor’s degree from WVU in business administration, and a master’s degree in student personnel from The Ohio State University. He started his professional career at WVU in 1991.
“It’s an honor to those that were in my past and certainly I want to build that legacy for someone else who’s going to follow in my foot steps to see great things that are done that hopefully I’ll have an impact on,” Farris said of the new position.
Farris was a frequent spokesperson last fall when a WVU freshman died from alcohol poisoning after a fraternity initiation event. The same semester, at least three Greek Life organizations faced action by the university or the national organization.
WVU President Gordon Gee has since pushed for a cultural change on campus.
“Still, we’ve got some students that are just bad actors and hooligans. That’s not the behavior that’s becoming of our students nor do we want them on our campus. Fortunately, we know that’s not many of our students. It’s just a handful. But they certainly take a lot of our attention,” Farris acknowledged.
Farris oversees the newly-reorganized Office of Greek Life as the associate vice president.
He indicated continued work to fulfill Gee’s mission.
“We will teach leadership skills to our students and our student organizations. We will hold students accountable from day one as we have done in the past. But, we’ll impose maybe stricter sanctions as appropriate,” predicted Farris.
Aside from Greek life oversight, Farris is responsible for helping manage Student Engagement and Leadership; Student Government Association; Campus and Community Life; Student Legal Services; the Office of Student Conduct; the Veterans Resource Center; and the newly formed Student Media, which includes the Daily Athenaeum and WWVU-FM.