FAIRMONT – Fairmont State University is opening its doors April 18 to prospective students and their families.
The occasion is “Maroon and White Day,” the annual visitation day for university that’s one of the top-growing in the region.
Hours are from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. that day, featuring tours of buildings, residence halls and other facilities.
Look for plenty of opportunities to meet with professors while learning about the school’s multitude of degree programs, from accounting to women’s and gender studies.
The leafy campus that sits on a rise overlooking Locust Avenue dates to 1865, when it was founded as Fairmont Normal School, the institution for teachers in the then-new state of West Virginia.
PAST … AND PRESENT
As its mission and degree offerings evolved, so did its name. In 1931, the school became Fairmont State Teacher’s College, then Fairmont State College in 1944.
It was christened Fairmont State University in 2004.
Students from all 55 counties in West Virginia and from 33 other states are currently enrolled, and international students hail from Australia to Japan and the United Kingdom.
More than 80% of the school’s current enrollment is from West Virginia.
Fairmont State’s alumni network is made up of 40,000 living graduates, across the U.S. and oceans.
This past November, the school hosted the worldwide premiere of a Brazilian documentary of the 1968 Farmington mine disaster, which happened around 20 miles from Fairmont. The film centered around surviving family members who, in the months and years after, successfully lobbied for critical safety measures for the dangerous industry.
Mike Davis, the school’s president, likes that local presence and local voice, he said.
He likes that the university can look forward in all its academic ways while still honing the heart of what’s important at home.
Every prospective student dropping in April 18, the president said, has a chance to add to that narrative weave.
“Our brightest days are ahead of us. We are shaping the future of higher education in West Virginia.”
