West Liberty State College (Campus History)

By: Robert W. Schramm

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Synopsis: Located in a charming community in West Virginia's northern panhandle is West Liberty State College, the oldest institution of higher learning in the Mountain State. The school was chartered by the State of Virginia as an academy in 1837 and has seen its share of changes since that time. Arguably the foremost change arrived in 1863 when West Virginia became the 35th state in the Union, thereby making the college older than the state. The school took its name from the community in which it resides, which, at the time of the American Revolution, was the frontier settlement farthest west of the Appalachian Mountains and therefore appropriatelynamed "West Liberty." Since that time, West Liberty State College has been organized and reorganized as a normal school, a state teacher's college, and, finally, a state college. It has maintained its stated mission "to launch our graduates into community, work, and academic environments ready tobe viable contributors with skills and knowledge needed to meet future opportunities and challenges." West Liberty State College celebrates the history and traditions of the school, spotlighting academic, social, and athletic events over the past 163 years.