MORGANTOWN — In his first 13 weeks or so in office, WVU President Michael Benson has traveled miles of winding, country roads as he’s made stops in 28 of the state’s 55 counties — so far — as part of his yearlong “Welcome Home” tour.

On Monday, in Fitzsimmons Event Hall at the WVU College of Law, Benson used his first State of the University address to begin unfolding the road map that charts the future of the state’s namesake land-grant university.

Lasting about 35 minutes, the speech touched on a wide variety of topics ranging from Christmas lights — Benson intends to bring back the university’s holiday lighting party at Woodburn Hall on Dec. 2 — to the closure of University Avenue through the downtown campus, which he’s very much in support of.

It also laid out a series of short, med

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