FYI for those considering applying to West Virginia University: shocking cuts to undergraduate and graduate programs were announced today, including the entire department of world languages. These cuts affect liberal arts and pre-professional departments alike, undergraduate and graduate, and they’re not done. Only those programs up for review in the current cycle are affected as of now, but program review is cyclical, with a minority of programs coming up in any given year. That means more is coming.
The university is arguing that only 2% of students are affected by the eliminated majors, but of course this is deceptive math, considering that this figure just includes students who are majoring in the cut departments, and all students take courses outside their majors. I’m not sure if that 2% includes graduate students.
I am totally gobsmacked by this. This tweet is the short version:
Eliminating ALL world languages faculty? So now foreign languages won’t be taught at the state’s flagship university at all?!? Eliminating grad programs in math and 1/3 of English faculty?!? These are CORE subjects!!!
I would think that West Virginia would be better off following Wyoming’s model and only having one university that’s properly resourced and set up rather than eliminating fundamental aspects of a university education.
And as someone quoted in one of the articles alluded to, I suspect that the late night shows are going to roast some folks over this one.
Some states will fund an out of state tuition for residents who wish to study a subject not offered at any in-state university. Maybe WVU will do that? Or maybe they offer languages elsewhere?
Edited to add WVU does have such a reciprocity program with Ohio. Apparently the state is in the greatest population decline in the country. Not sure there is anything roast-worth about this; more states in poor areas with declining college age kids will follow suit. Maybe reciprocity agreements are the future.
West Virginia has a low population that is spread across rugged terrain in low population density (the “big cities” in the state have <50,000 population). This makes it difficult to combine state universities into one or a few that are commute accessible to much of the state population. Having nine state universities scattered across the state means that some majors at any one campus may be too small. In a few cases (WVU + FSU, WVSU + Marshall, BSC + Concord + WVIT), they do seem to have two state universities needlessly close together, so there can be the possibility of combining them. But that would still leave five or so small state universities that could have the “too small” problem for many majors.
That could solve the “too small” aspect, but could much of the population afford to live residentially at the one state university, or could the state afford to subsidize residential living costs for the large portion of the students who do not already live in commuting distance to the one state university?
It is also possible that the chosen subjects have more out-of-state students than others. If so, the cuts make sense in a time of declining enrollment and population.
Does it? Many state universities with unused capacity would like to fill it with out-of-state students paying out-of-state tuition (+$18k/year for an out-of-state undergraduate at WVU). But if WVU needs to offer big scholarships to attract out-of-state students, that may be cancelling the benefit of enrolling them.
Cutting programs means cutting the individual courses. Just because there aren’t a lot of graduates in a particular program doesn’t mean that the courses that will no longer be available weren’t important. It will be interesting to see whether their accreditation is affected (not saying it will be, but it could be).
The world language, literatures, and linguistics dept is actually a money maker for the University. It has few majors but serves a large number of students while bringing in revenue. Humanities Depts are less costly to run than majors that require labs, expensive material, etc. It seems extremely myopic to cut classes that are less expensive to run (and even generate money) in the hopes of…what, exactly? Get better ROI for the remaining majors?
Finally, I don’t think you can be a R1 University (or be considered a “flagship”, or a serious University) if you only keep “service” courses in English&Math + cut Languages entirely. Even Steven Point when considering similr cuts tried to mitigate the issue and it was third tier public university, not the flagship.
Another issue: WV can externalize entire parts of its Higher Education system to Ohio but would students necessarily go back? Wouldn’t the revenue they generate leave the state, too?
I’m normally sympathetic to the “hard tradeoffs” argument, but with WVU’s President Gordon Gee making upwards of $800,000 (that’s his base salary), I can’t help but wonder if the school could have cut some administrative bloat before decimating it’s foreign language program.
The WVU cuts are also, let’s be honest, the result of the state being governed by a political party that has recently become (to put it mildly) skeptical of higher education in general, and of humanistic studies in particular.
This is why, alongside cuts to expensive programs like pharmacy, you get things like languages and linguistics disappearing even though that one made money for the university.
Update: cuts also planned in civil engineering, CSE, EE, architecture, urban planning, tourism&recreation (major created to encourage development of small businesses in an economic sector seen as important for the State).
Justification given for cutting Dept of Foreign Languages: students can learn through an app or could take basic online classes from another state; other colleges have cut their FL requirement, such as Duquesne or Amherst College. (Notwithstanding the fact not having a FL requirement doesn’t mean cutting all the Depts offering one, as we know Amherst is simply open curriculum, with most freshmen entering with Level 4 or higher in FL, and continuing even past that or starting new ones. And Duquesne is not a state flagship even if it’s a well-recognized university regionally.)
I agree the WVU president’s salary needs to be cut, but given the broad swath of cuts, this move certainly appears economically motivated. I don’t have any solutions either, but note that we will see more of these in the future. Declining population takes a toll, and WV has a lot of competing pressing needs. I don’t think anyone wanted this, but unless another state or philanthropist offers to fund WVU it appears inevitable.
I doubt greatly that any departments are “money makers” for a university unless they bring in substantial grant money. The costs of faculty are fixed, and frankly most students attending WVU are not drawn there by its FL departments. Since the University came up with its proposal I do not think posters are correct in their assumption of some nefarious political motivation.
Some types of professional programs like law and business (MBA) could be for some schools, if they can charge high tuition for them (they do not have as high cost as health professional programs).
Wow. I really liked Gordon Gee when my D attended a school where he previously worked. Frankly, it surprises me that he would think these cuts are appropriate. Of course, I am aware that he does not operate in a vacuum.
