State Leaders Break Ground On Agricultural Lab

West Virginia State University has been the only land grant institution in the nation without an agriculture school. However, due to a new law that is about to change. 

The 2024 Legislature passed a bill that would allocate $50 million to West Virginia State University to build an agriculture school. Gov. Jim Justice ceremonially signed the bill in May. 

On Tuesday, city and state officials broke ground on a new facility that will house a laboratory space for both WVSU and the West Virginia Department of Agriculture.

A Segregated and Underfunded History

The University is one of two Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the state. The other is Bluefield State College.

Last year, the Biden administration sent a letter to Gov. Jim Justice, addressing an “ongoing underinvestment in West Virginia State University” compared to the state’s other, predominantly white, land-grant university — West Virginia University.

WVSU President Ericke Cage said the groundbreaking brought on mixed emotions, although he said he felt a great deal of pride. 

“With today’s groundbreaking,” Cage said, “we take steps to fully fulfill our mission as a land grant institution and to do away with the dubious distinction of not having an agricultural school.” 

West Virginia State University is an 1890 Land Grant Institution. Such Institutions were founded under the Second Morrill Act of 1890, a federal mandate that states either consider Black students equal or create separate land-grant schools for them. 

Recent Steps Towards Increasing Investment in WVSU

Cage said this investment is a step forward for the university. 

“Today, we plant our flag in the sand and we say that we at West Virginia State University are going to establish a School of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, and this facility will serve as a cornerstone of that vision, of that goal,” Cage said.  

In the 2023 legislative session, the legislature passed a bill that funded the university by an extra million-plus dollars to help maximize federal matching programs. 

In Justice’s final State of the State address in January, he proposed the new Agriculture Lab at West Virginia State University. Now, with that proposal realized, he says this funding will help take the school to greatness — again. 

“We’ve pulled the rope together, from the legislature to the Agriculture Commissioner to all of us at this great school,” Justice said. “We’ve made some real goodness happen in West Virginia right now, and we’ll reap the benefits forever and ever and ever and ever.”