West Virginia University President Jim Clements has been elected secretary of the Council of Presidents of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.
At the association’s recent national meeting held in Denver, representatives of member institutions elected Clements for a one-year term to the post, which also places him as a member of APLU’s executive committee.
“It is an honor to represent WVU at the national level and to play a role in moving public and land-grant universities forward through advocacy for scholarship and innovation,” Clements said. “The Association for Public and Land-grant Universities has a long tradition of leadership among educational institutions that have brought so much to this nation.”
With 218 members including 74 land-grant universities, APLU is the pre-eminent organization of land-grant institutions and plays an important role in the discussions over the future of higher education. In many ways, it sets the agenda for those discussions.
As the organization notes, “With the myriad challenges facing public higher education, it has never been more important for university officials to come together and discuss strategies for the future.”
APLU institutions enroll 3.5 million undergraduate students, 1.1 million graduate students and conduct nearly two-thirds of all federally funded academic research, which totals more than $34 billion annually.
