For those that may have limitations preventing you from listening I transcribed it below. I also highlighted in green what specifically was said about expansion and put in bold things that were directly or perhaps indirectly a call out to BYU (the mountain thing is a stretch - just having fun there). My guess is in their pre-interview conversation they mentioned a few topics to touch on like start of the new year changes, admissions, Harper's Ferry and his spot on the expansion committee. Or at least in the pre-interview he didn't specifically say that was an off limit topic. This was not just some guy goading him into making a complimentary statement about BYU...


Host: Please welcome the pride of Vernal, Utah; (chuckles from Gee) E Gordon Gee, WV President (more chuckles from Gee); What?

Gee: Hey! The pride of Vernal, Utah; Where are you coming up with that?

Host: What? Your home town!

Gee: There's one friend of mine, you'll laugh about this but I got a note recently a friend of mine who owns a local Burger King in this very small town Vernal, Utah has my picture up in it (chuckles) I don't know about that.

Host: What do you mean has a picture on it? The Burger King?

Gee: It has my picture hanging in the Burger King so there you go.

Host: Well now you know. I looked at some pictures this morning, it looks like a nice little town.

Gee: It is, it is a nice town.

Host: Do you still have people there?

Gee: It's much bigger now than when I grew up, you know it was only about 3000 people when I grew up.

Host: Oh really?

Gee: Yeah.

Host: You still have people there?

Gee: Nope, well I have cousins there, but my direct family, no longer live there.

Host: Take me back to 19' like probably 1964 or '63 and you show up about this time of the year at the campus of the University of Utah.

Gee: Mmmhmm

Host: Do you remember that?

Gee: Oh ya, absolutely, well actually I was um let me think at that time I was actually on a mission for the Mormon Church, I was in Germany at that time. But I remember coming from a small town and going to the university my first year I was 18 and you know it was pretty intimidating coming from a small campus er coming from a small town to a large campus. The university at that time was probably about 20,000 maybe 21,000 and so you know our own campus is substantially larger than that place was. So I know the feeling of students who come from small communities and from rural areas, that we have to, that is one of the reasons we made all the changes we are making.

Host: That's what I want to talk about those, how did you find your groove there? How did you fit in?

Gee: Well you know I did a couple things. When I joined a fraternity, I got actively involved, you know I had been the student body president of my high school and you know I always had that kind of information to get engaged in student activities. I can tell you I had a fairly typical undergraduate experience as a matter of fact.

Host: Really, why?

Gee: Well because of the fact, well first of all remember I went away for about 2, 2.5 to 3 years on a Mormon mission so when I came back I was a little bit older. But everyone in that day was that because of the fact there were so many members of the Mormon Church who were there, they all were kind of following along. But yeah, I had a great experience at the university. I did well academically. And started to get a sense about what I wanted to do. Found my passion. All the things...You know it's interesting, all the things that students should be going through now, I went through. And went through the notion of changing and deciding what I wanted to do, I always wanted to be a physician and had said that since I was about 10 years of age and then after I got there I discovered I really wanted to go into another direction. I always joke about the fact that organic chemistry makes good lawyers. (host chuckles).

Host: To you alls credit you did a really good job this fall of having a lot of events, both fun and also serious to try to get students of on the right foot because it's real important; if you screw up in the first two weeks or 3 weeks you could well be screwed. But if you get off to a good start and you go to class and you don't end up face down some where drunk, if you get off to a good start you've got a better chance of being OK.

Gee: You know the notion of having freedom for the first time, parents leave and all of a sudden you are on your own you have this immediate rush of freedom and so what we try to do is make certain that we had everyone understand they have both freedom but they also have responsibility and we changed so many different things. And by the way I'll just tell you this, I read a number of reviews online and or it really did work, students were very happy about what we did. Including moving the Fall fest, the bands to a Sunday afternoon. You know the thing was over by about 8:00 and the students had a great time. You just take a look at, I mean this is kind of a negative thing, but I looked at it if you take a look at it compared to last several years in terms of arrests or misbehavior or breaking the rules were way down dramatically. And so that shows that we are making real progress. Of course you know this is the best academically prepared class in this history of the university.

Host: Really? How do you know that?

Gee: Because of the fact that we have all the data. You know we nearly doubled our honor students. We have you know the SAT scores, the ACT scores, the grades, you know the grades and all the thing they were admitted on. The numbers are really strong. And that is a goal to make certain we keep the best and brightest in West Virginia and also that we attract great and capable bright students from around the world.

Host: The university does get, as a graduate, because it has a very open admissions policy, as a native I appreciate it, I like that WV, if you went to high school in West Virginia and you graduated from high school, you are going to get into WVU. And I know that some in higher education turn their nose up at that; I like that and think it is a really important mission of WVU. Also though because the standards are relatively modest you are going to get kids from a variety of places who really aren't that serious about their academics and their saying - ok I'll go to college and I can get into WVU. So that cuts both ways. Doesn't it?

Gee: Yeah well, you know I've been through all of this and the answer is we're not a red cross community we are not a place where we are preparing students to over come the ills of not doing well academically in high school. The answer is that we are no longer an open admission institution. And we changed that slowly. And at the same time we don't, there is fine line that I've always felt very strongly about, there is a fine line between being elite and being elitist. We want to be a place in which we attract the best and brightest students academically but also a place in which kids from small towns and large towns that may have certain deficits can come here and succeed. So you are hitting on the exact spot where we want to be. You know we are never going to be totally an institution selected totally based upon all those kinds of scores but we are going to be an institution that holds people to a high standard and we want to have people come here who are serious about their education and I think we are making real progress in that regard.

Host: WV President E Gordon Gee is with us, let me switch topics. You went to, I think you went to Harper's Ferry this Summer and you saw the damage that was done near the historic park and you said that the university has offered some help there?

Gee: Yeah the university is heavily engaged with both feet on the ground and our extension services and a number of folks working closely with the community and the mayor over there to make sure that we've got that community up and going as fast as we can. I can say that I was very impressed with the city leaders there who also volunteer in the small town there are only about 289 or 90 people who actually live in Harper's Ferry. And so we're all in this together and we really did stack hands and we had a great visit and now we're working very hard to rebuild the place.

Host: WV President E Gordon Gee is with us, do you think as a president of a member institution of the Big 12 that the league should expand or stay at its current number.

Gee: Well you know I'm on the expansion committee and it is well known, first of all I love our league. You know I've been a member of the SEC, and a member of the B1G Ten twice, a member of the Ivy league and so I've seen all these leagues and I like the culture in our league. I like having 10 teams where we play each other. I think we just want to make certain that if we add you are adding for the right reasons and the right teams. So the answer is I'm very open on that issue.

Host: What do you think about adding BYU and get your Mormons in there?

Gee: Yeah well you know, I mean, BYU would be a very good addition to the B12 as a matter of fact.

Host: So you are just saying you are open minded, you're not going to make a commitment.

Gee: Absolutely, well I mean, and in the end we are going through a very very refined process we are taking a look at all the data, we are taking a look at eyes on the screen, we're taking a look at academic compatibility. All the things we think are important, we want to have institutions that match our many mountains and not just our athletic mountains.

Host: Do you think there should be a championship game?

Gee: Championship game as in...

Host: In the league.

Gee: In the B1G Te

Host: Oh I see, you just had a flash back to your days at Ohio State. I know.

Gee: Yeah, well, what I did was you know you got 10 teams in the Big 12 and the B1G Ten has 14 teams now (host chuckles) you know the mathematics are mixed up here. So I think that, let me point out that we did not have a play off and people think that hurt us. Now if my former institution Ohio State had lost then we would have had 2 teams in the final four playing. TCU & Baylor it can cut either way. I think that it would be paramount that if we had 12 teams that we'd certainly want to have a playoff but with 10 teams where we all play each other I'm not certain what value added that is.

Host: WV President E Gordon Gee, next time anyone who's listening is in Vernal, Utah go to the Burger King and you'll see his picture. Good talking to you.