West Virginia State University

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West Virginia State University

Former names	West Virginia Colored Institute (1891–1915) West Virginia Collegiate Institute (1915–1929) West Virginia State College (1929–2004)
Motto	Veritas Lux Mundi (Latin)
Motto in English	"Truth is the Light of the World"
Type	Public historically black land-grant university
Established	1891; 133 years ago (1891)
Accreditation	HLC
Academic affiliations	TMCF WVHEPC
Endowment	$12.6 million (2021)[1]
President	Ericke S. Cage
Students	3,879 (fall 2017)[2]
Undergraduates	3,755
Postgraduates	124
Location	Institute , West Virginia , United States 38°22′57″N 81°45′56″W / 38.38250°N 81.76556°W / 38.38250; -81.76556
Campus	Midsize suburb[3], 100 acres (0.40 km2)
Newspaper	The Yellow Jacket
Colors	Black and gold
Nickname	Yellow Jackets
Sporting affiliations	NCAA Division II - MEC
Mascot	Stinger
Website	www.wvstateu.edu

West Virginia State University (WVSU) is a public historically black, land-grant university in Institute, West Virginia. Founded in 1891 as the West Virginia Colored Institute, it is one of the original 19 land-grant colleges and universities established by the second Morrill Act of 1890, which evolved as a diverse and inclusive campus. Following desegregation, WVSU's student population slowly became more white than black. As of 2017, WVSU's student body was 75% white and only 8% African-American.^[4]

The university's Gus R. Douglass Land-Grant Institute is divided into three programmatic divisions: WVSU Extension Service, WVSU Agricultural and Environmental Research Station, and The Center for the Advancement of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (CASTEM). The WVSU Extension Service (1890 Extension) provides community and agricultural outreach throughout West Virginia via 4-H Youth Development, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Community and Economic Development, and Family and Consumer Sciences programs. The WVSU Agricultural and Environmental Research Station (1890 Research) focuses on Aquaculture, Environmental Microbiology & Biotechnology, Horticultural Crops & Production Systems, Urban Forestry & Natural Resource Management, and Vegetable Genomics & Plant Breeding research programs. CASTEM programs encourage the state's youth to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network (STEM) fields to become engineers, scientists, researchers, teachers, and leaders.