Alsop to leave WVU as school ‘reorganizes’ strategic initiatives in wake of financial crisis

Rob Alsop, the vice president of strategic initiatives at West Virginia University, will leave his position this month as he “temporarily transition[s]” to being a special advisor for President E. Gordon Gee, according to a news release issued by the school on Tuesday. 

The change is effective Nov. 18 and Alsop will serve in the temporary role until Jan. 31, according to the release. There were no further details provided in the announcement regarding the circumstances around Alsop’s departure, only that he “plans to leave” his current position.

Over coming days, remaining leadership at WVU will “review the needs of the university” while they look at reorganizing their strategic initiatives. The changes come as the school faces ongoing budget issues that have led to the loss of hundreds of jobs and dozens of degree programs. The “academic transformation,” as WVU has called it, as well as the school’s leadership has been widely criticized by students, faculty, staff and alumni at the university.

Throughout the transformation process, Alsop has been centered as a university leader and proponent for the changes. In September, after the school announced what programs could potentially be cut due to the $45 million deficit, Alsop presented to state lawmakers in Gee’s place to explain how those decisions were made by the university.

In Tuesday’s release, Gee said he was “deeply appreciative” of the work Alsop has done during his tenure at the university. He noted the challenges Alsop helped the school navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic as well as “the headwinds” the university currently faces.

There were no further details provided on Alsop’s future plans for when he leaves the school in January.

“As the University turns the page to its next chapter, it is also an appropriate time for me to begin my next chapter,” Alsop said in the release. “I love WVU and wish nothing but the best for it, the President and his leadership team.”

Alsop was appointed as the university’s vice president for legal and governmental affairs and entrepreneurial engagement in 2014, resigning from the school’s board of governors to take the position. In 2017, he transitioned to the vice president of strategic initiatives — a restructured position created after the retirement of Narvel Weese, the former vice president of administration and finance for the university.

Alsop is a two-time WVU graduate, earning his bachelor’s degree in political science in 1999 and his law degree from the WVU College of Law in 2002. Before joining the WVU administration, Alsop served in a number of governmental positions both in West Virginia and Washington, D.C. From 2010 to 2013, he worked as chief of staff for former Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, who appointed Alsop to the WVU board of governors about two months after his departure from the executive office.