Michael T. Benson


Michael T. Benson is a college administrator who was most recently the president of Eastern Kentucky University from August 1, 2013 to January 6, 2020. He previously served as president of Southern Utah University, Snow College, and as special assistant to the president at University of Utah. He was appointed Visiting Professor within the Department of the History of Science and Technology at Johns Hopkins University in January 2020.

Biography

Benson earned his bachelor's degree Cum Laude from Brigham Young University, and then went on to earn a doctorate in Modern History from St Antony's College, Oxford. His dissertation committee included Daniel Walker Howe, Robert Dallek and John Lewis Gaddis. Benson also earned a master's degree Cum Laude in Non-Profit Administration from the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame. A firm believer in life-long education, Benson is currently pursuing an online program to earn a master's degree in liberal arts from Johns Hopkins University and is on schedule to graduate in 2021. In recent years he has received national attention for his religious ecumenicism and his humorous use of social media to reach students. Benson is an accomplished athlete, having played basketball at Oxford and on the JV team at Brigham Young University. He is also a golfer and marathon runner.
He is a son of Mark A. Benson. He worked for several years as an employee of the BYU Division of Continuing Education and was the first director of the BYU-Ogden Center.

University presidencies

Snow College

In 2001, Benson was appointed as the 14th president of Snow College. Age 36 at the time, he was the youngest college or university president in the history of the Utah System of Higher Education. During his tenure, Benson raised the private funds to construct the Eccles Center for the Performing Arts, made Snow an All Steinway school, and brought Elie Wiesel to campus for a lecture and to receive an honorary degree.

Southern Utah University

Benson was appointed the president of Southern Utah University on November 10, 2006, by the Utah State Board of Regents. Two weeks into his presidency, Benson secured the largest donation in the school's history, which was used to expand SUU's Science Complex. He was also instrumental in gaining admission for SUU into the Big Sky Conference and landed the largest gift in the university’s history from the Sorenson Legacy Foundation to help construct the Beverly Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts. In March 2014, Benson returned to Cedar City to help celebrate the conclusion of "The Future is Rising" campaign which brought in a record $105 million in seven years for Southern Utah University.

Eastern Kentucky University

On April 5, 2013, it was announced that Benson was unanimously selected to become the 12th president of Eastern Kentucky University as the University's Board of Regents was seeking a "bold, visionary leader." He began August 1, 2013. Throughout his more than 25-year career in public higher education, Benson has devoted himself to students and their academic success. He is an accomplished communicator and scholar committed to diversity and expanding global academic opportunities, and is a proven financial manager who is focused on developing and sustaining political and external support for EKU.
In 2015, Benson worked with retired EKU Archivist Charles Hay and senior Damir Siahkoohi and proposed to the EKU Board of Regents that Dr. Mary Roark, Eastern’s “acting” president in 1909-10, be named officially as Eastern’s second president. The Board took this action at its February 2, 2015, meeting. Dr. Mary Roark assumed the presidency when her husband Ruric Nevel Roark died suddenly after a short illness, and was the first female to serve as president of any public college or university in the state of Kentucky. Benson thus became Eastern’s 13th president.
During his tenure, EKU saw record enrollments, recorded dramatic improvements in retention and graduation rates, launched its most ambitious fund raising campaign ever, and completed nearly $300 million in capital improvements. The university also graduated more students in an academic year than ever before in its history.
On December 11th, 2019 President Benson announced his resignation from Eastern Kentucky University effective January 6th, 2020. He was subsequently named President Emeritus of EKU.

Other appointments

Benson served as Chair of the NCAA Honors Committee and Chair of the Presidents' Council for the Ohio Valley Conference and on the NCAA Division I Presidential Forum. He is also the past chair of the Higher Education Consortium for Bluegrass Tomorrow and a member of the Steering Committee of Kentucky Rising. In February 2020, Benson was awarded the Vision Award for Education by Bluegrass Tomorrow in recognition of his service to EKU and the Commonwealth.
Benson served on the Council of Presidents for the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges and as a member on the Task Force for University Partnerships for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. Benson also served as the convener for all presidents of public universities in Kentucky for two years.
In 2009, Governor Jon M. Huntsman named Benson to a four-year term as member of the seven-person Utah Appellate Courts Nominating Commission. Benson served as Chair of the Presidents’ Council for the Summit League, SUU’s Division I athletic conference. Benson also served on the Advisory Board of the Cedar City Airport. Benson has completed a two-year term as the Chair of the Executive Committee of the Utah State Campus Compact. He is a past member of the Zions Bank Central Utah Board of Advisors, and the Wells Fargo Southwest Utah Board of Advisors. He has been employed in many other capacities, including: Associate Director of Major Gifts, Consulting Historian, Academic Advisor and Essayist, Visiting Lecturer, and Research Assistant.

Publications

Benson is the author of Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel and, with co-author Hal Boyd, published College for the Commonwealth: A Case for Higher Education in American Democracy with the University Press of Kentucky. The volume expands the arguments of Benson and Boyd's article, "The Public University: The Democratic Purpose of Higher Education." Their work was nominated for the University of Louisville 2020 Grawemeyer Award in Education. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and former Rhodes Professor of American history at the University of Oxford, Daniel Walker Howe, wrote this about College for the Commonwealth: "Benson and Boyd present a convincing case for why higher education needs and deserves public support. From practical examples they demonstrate how investment in higher education enables a society to rise to the opportunities presented by the future."
Benson’s next book is nearly completed and under contract with Johns Hopkins University Press with an anticipated release date of Fall 2021. Titled Gilman at Hopkins: The Birth of the Modern American Research University, this work aims to recount the life of Johns Hopkins University’s first president, Daniel Coit Gilman, and the establishment of America’s first research university in Baltimore in 1876.

Personal life

Benson and his first wife, Celia Benson, divorced in 2004. They are the parents of two children, Emma and Samuel.
Benson and his wife, Debi, are the parents of three children: Truman, Tatum and Talmage.
Benson is a descendant of the famous Taft family. His middle name is Taft.
Benson is a grandson of former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and LDS Church President Ezra Taft Benson, and served an LDS mission in Rome, Italy. His older brother Steve Benson is the Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist.