WVU: West Virginia Univ. Recommends Cutting 169 Faculty Positions, 32 Majors. More Schools

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Sat Aug 12, 2023, 09:50 PM - Edit history (1)

WVU Recommends Cutting 169 Faculty Positions, 32 Majors, WVMetroNews, 8.11.23. Ed.

🎓 MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — WVU is recommending the university eliminate 169 faculty positions following a review of every academic program. It’s part of what officials have described as a repositioning of the university with the changing higher education landscape that includes declining student enrollment. The elimination of 169 faculty would represent about a 7% cut.

Enrollment has declined from 31,000 in 2014 to about 26,000 this year, and WVU anticipates a continued drop to 21,000 by 2033. This year’s budget deficit is $45 million and WVU is looking at a $75 million annual deficit moving forward if it takes no action. So the university is now taking steps to reduce programs and staff to cut its budget by $45 million — about 3% of its overall budget.

The preliminary recommendations released Friday include discontinuing 32 of 338 majors impacting 147 undergraduate students and 287 graduate students.

“While we view these preliminary recommendations for reductions & discontinuations as necessary, we are keenly aware of the people they will affect,” WVU President Gordon Gee said in a news release Friday afternoon. “We do not take that lightly. These faculty are our colleagues, our neighbors & our friends. These decisions are difficult to make. Among the programs recommended for discontinuance, World Languages including all 32 faculty positions.

WVU is also recommending the elimination of several programs in the College of Creative Arts, grad. programs in higher education admin. & special education. Many of the cuts are being recommended because of low student enrollment & the expense of the particular program. While many of other programs survived this review there will be changes ahead. It’s recommended the WVU College Law eliminate 2 professors & make meaningful revisions to its curriculum...

- More, https://wvmetronews.com/2023/08/11/wvu-recommends-cutting-169-faculty-positions-32-majors/

Comments, More Schools...

[yankee87]

1. Football cuts?

I'm going out on a limb and saying, no cuts to the football program.

[appalachiablue]

3. You bet and no way!

[jimfields33]

6. Why would there be? Football is self sustained

AND it gives a lot of money to women’s sports. I think many forget both of these:

[czarjak]

2. Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, all that gol' durned fancy learnin: has got to go?

The Birchers winning is not a good thing. They don't oppose education except when POC are getting it. Fact.

[appalachiablue]

4. No more of that fancy, liberal learning that puts dangerous ideas in young 'folks heads..

[jimfields33]

8. Hefty salaries aside, thousands of faculty cuts highlight financial vice squeezing US colleges and

University.


https://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/news/2022/09/15/college-faculty-salary-cuts-payroll-best-paid.amp.html


You were saying?

[czarjak]

16. $76,000 is a hefty salary?

[badhair77]

5. Stunning.

I’m curious if other higher Ed institutions in the area are cutting and have declining enrollment.

[jimfields33]

7. Huge cuts in faculty all over the country.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/02/26/high-f26.html

[appalachiablue]

12. Tks for posting, what an eye opener. These severe changes will have deep, lasting impacts - more...

- US universities have cut 650,000 jobs, a 13 percent workforce reduction, since the onset of the pandemic, WSWS, 25 Feb. 2021. - Ed.

The Dept. of Labor published a striking report this month on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education. The report concluded that colleges and universities have cut a total of 650,000 jobs since Feb. 2020, 13% of all higher education workers. While the Dept. of Labor has not specified the types of jobs which have been cut, reports from university systems across the country demonstrate the damage done to university workers.

Thousands of positions for food service and custodial workers have been cut as on-campus services were slashed and dorms closed.

Workers engaged in student services have also been vulnerable as services were moved online & condensed. Some of the most notable targets of university layoffs & cuts have been adjunct faculty & non-tenured professors, who have been the subject of significant rounds of mass firings as to cut costs and consolidate courses. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY announced in May that it would not be renewing the contracts of 200 employees, incl. 60 full-time non-tenured faculty & an undisclosed number of adjuncts.

RPI also furloughed nearly 300 employees, mostly non-instructional staff, despite the university president making $5 million a year.

Over the summer, Northern Arizona Univ. eliminated 114 non-tenured faculty. Provided with no severance, they were told they would lose their health coverage within a week. The Univ. of Akron eliminated 178 positions, incl. 23% of its unionized full-time faculty between the start of the pandemic and summer 2020. The Univ. of Michigan laid off 173 workers, furloughed over 3,500 & enforced more than 2,300 wage reductions. One of the largest attacks on university staff came from the City Univ. of New York (CUNY) system, which laid off 2,800 adjunct faculty last summer, a quarter of CUNY’s adjunct staff..

The immediate cause of these mass job cuts is the collapse in university budgets during the pandemic. However, there is no doubt that the crisis is being utilized to push through a restructuring of higher education that will result in lower wages for professors & other school staff...https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/02/26/high-f26.html

[dem4decades]

9. Isn't West Virginia near the bottom of states when ranked by college degree?

West Virginia, near the bottom in education and near the top in Trump support.

Makes sense..

[appalachiablue]

14. It's all over the US, see #7, 12.

[MyOwnPeace]

10. Just another example of the Repukes' effort.......

to devalue education. It's easy to make fun of the fact that WVU is having problems, what with that state being represented by Senator Moneychin and their dedication to fossil fuel. But it is NOT just there - as posted elsewhere in this thread, it is happening all over our country.

Look at what Governor WhiteBoots is doing in Florida! What has been happening there will take 10 to 20 years to correct - and shame on anyone that wants to be a part of THAT movement!

When we lose our basic commitment to education we begin to weaken our country. A poorly educated populace is 'ripe pickins' for those who want to rule for themselves, not the country.

[appalachiablue]

13. Absolutely, it's all over the country, more see #7, #12..

[BlueIn_W_Pa]

19. Not at all

read post #17.

It's these institutions spending for "campus life" in gyms, rec areas, starbucks with the administrators sucking up a huge toll, while MOST degrees don't leave a student having $100,000 in fees with a viable job.

[Tanuki]

11. The base salary of WVU President Gordon Gee is $800k.

https://wvutoday.wvu.edu/stories/2019/06/21/wvu-board-of-governors-extends-gordon-gee-s-contract-through-2024#:~:text=The%20extension%20approved%20Friday%20adds,history%20of%20West%20Virginia%20University.

[appalachiablue]

15. For sure.

[róisín_dubh]

17. It's so grim. I resigned in December from a humanities department there...

having seen the writing on the wall and deciding to end my career on my own terms before Gee and Co could. But I obviously still have friends and former colleagues and students that I'm deeply worried about. Their careers are over, effectively. There are very few jobs in the Humanities; students aiming to do graduate studies in my field need backgrounds in foreign languages to even be admitted to most graduate schools.

Here's a good read on this: https://community.wvu.edu/~jokatz/ChronStoryWVU.pdf

[appalachiablue]

18. Extremists have been after the humanities & liberal arts for decades,

and are aggressively destroying studies now. I feel for you, your colleagues, the students and all. The country is going to ruins, on this front and many others. Hell to see, but we have to still fight for honest education and democracy. Take care.