The governor of West Virginia, Patrick Morrisey, announced on Wednesday that Dr Patrick Lee Miller will serve a five-year term as the inaugural director of the Washington Centre for Civics, Culture & Statesmanship at West Virginia University in Morgantown. The position is a direct result of House Bill 3297, passed earlier this year, which mandated the creation of the centre focused on civic education.

Under the law, the centre is charged with instructing students in political philosophy, constitutional governance, Western civilisation and the founding principles of the United States. It carries an appropriation of one-and-a-half million dollars and requires the university to recruit five additional faculty as part of the new unit.

Governor Morrisey framed the appointment as part of a broader commitment to restore the core values of American civic life. “We said we wanted to teach students how to think, not what to think, and we wanted to ensure that the values that made America great are taught with honesty and pride,” he said at the announcement. He added that the centre and its leader “are going to push back on woke ideology that has infected our schools and help return higher education to its true purpose.”

Dr Miller comes to the role with a PhD in philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has served since 2012 as an associate professor of philosophy at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. His academic work includes books such as Truth, Trump, Tyranny: Plato and the Sophists in an Era of 'Alternative Facts' and Becoming God: Pure Reason in Early Greek Philosophy. Miller said his vision for the centre is to “train students in the Western tradition, starting with ancient Greece and Rome, through the framing of the U.S. Constitution, and up to the present crisis.” He described the United States as “the greatest civilisation” in explaining his impetus for the role.

The legislation stipulates that Dr Miller must name a seven-member academic council by 11 November, comprising scholars from outside the university’s regular faculty ranks. The council will advise on curriculum, hiring, tenure and programme design. University President Michael Benson welcomed the appointment, saying: “We hope to attract wonderful scholars and faculty.” The centre is expected to launch in the 2025-26 academic year, aligning with the nation’s upcoming 250th anniversary of independence.

Some members of the legislature had earlier raised concerns that the law bypassed the university’s traditional governance structures and lacked guaranteed long-term funding. Nevertheless, the appointment signals a firm step toward realising Governor Morrisey’s stated aim of fostering robust civic education and statesmanship training in West Virginia’s higher-education system.