WVU President Michael Benson explained the significance behind the “Let’s Go!” tagline during his opening remarks Tuesday evening at the Blennerhassett Hotel. (Photo by Matty Lamp)

PARKERSBURG — The new President of West Virginia University is spending the week traveling to historic and cultural sites all around the state, including in Parkersburg at the Blennerhassett Hotel.

President Michael Benson and his team, along with WVU donors, students and alumni, were welcomed to the Blennerhassett Hotel Tuesday evening with a reception to celebrate Benson’s new role as the 27th WVU President and the impact WVU has on the Parkersburg community.

In his opening remarks for the event, Benson announced a new change for the iconic “Let’s Go!” tagline seen in promotional materials, saying that they chose to incorporate bolder letters, and the tagline acts like an acronym that stands for attributes of the university. He said the ending “o” in “Let’s Go!” stands for “outwork, outperform.”

In his remarks, Benson also described his appreciation for West Virginians as hard workers.

“They’re gritty, they work hard,” said Benson. “They don’t take anything for granted.”

WVU students, donors and alumni were invited to the Blennerhassett Hotel on Tuesday evening to meet WVU President Michael Benson. (Photo by Matty Lamp)

At the end of the remarks, Benson drew the names of two WVU students to receive $200 Barnes & Noble gift cards.

Benson said he wanted to continue former President E. Gordon Gee’s tradition to go to all 55 counties in West Virginia to learn more about each region of West Virginia and meet new people along the way. Benson’s trip started in Hancock County on Monday with the week’s itinerary being Brooke, Ohio, Marshall, Wetzel, Tyler, Pleasants, Wood, Jackson, Kanawha, Clay, Braxton, Lewis, Harrison, Taylor, Barbour, Randolph and Upshur counties.

He said he plans to eventually make his way to all counties.

“I enjoy asking them about themselves and their stories. I look forward to the next few days and meeting more people and coming to appreciate just how much WVU means to these communities, especially ones that have a WVU Medicine presence,” Benson said. “That’s been really impactful to see how much they depend on what the university provides, and the extension services as well.”

Benson formerly was president at Eastern Kentucky University and Coastal Carolina University. He completed his doctorate in modern history at the University of Oxford.

WVU President Michael Benson chose the Blennerhassett Hotel as one of the historic and cultural sites on his tour of the state. (Photo by Matty Lamp)

He also has a master’s of non-profit administration at the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame and a master’s of liberal arts from Johns Hopkins University.

Benson said that he wants to take his experience as a faculty member as well as a president to be involved with the WVU campus community and take the time to learn what is important to students.

“I think as an administrator, you can get consumed with all things administrative. And the best place to learn about what’s going on in the campus and keep the pulse on the heartbeat of the students is to get back in the classroom,” said Benson. “That’s the most important thing we do is to teach.”

Benson said he chose to stop at the Blennerhassett Hotel because of its rich history and significance to the area.

“As we made our way south, it made perfect sense to stop in Parkersburg. I’ve heard about this historic hotel, and I looked forward to learning about it,” Benson said. He plans to tour Blennerhassett Island on Wednesday.

WVU in the next few weeks plans to strategize its finances, enrollment and competitive sports and determine how to expand its reach to encourage out-of-state students to attend WVU.

“When you step foot on campus, sometimes you’ll think ‘Oh, this is right.’ And we certainly hope that’s the case at West Virginia,” Benson said.