STOP THE CUTS AT WVU
THE BUDGET CRISIS AT WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY
West Virginia University is facing a $45 million budget crisis, which it expects to get worse. The administration’s proposed solution to the deficit—which they are attributing to declining enrollment—is to drastically cut academic programs and course offerings, and to lay off countless faculty and staff.
This plan will be a disaster for the reputation of the university, for the residents of West Virginia, and for students from all over the world who receive their education here. Our research shows that the current crisis has been caused just as much by poor planning and financial malfeasance by university leadership as it has been by low enrollment, and that there are far better ways to cut unnecessary spending than undermining our core functions of teaching and research.
The financial situation at WVU has been caused by bad decisions at all levels of administration, and allowing those same administrators to rewrite the rules and restructure the university is a terrible idea.
In order to remain a world class research university, and avoid the ‘brain drain’ which West Virginia is already sadly familiar with, WVU must take this opportunity to invest in its future. Please join us in demanding an immediate halt to all program and job cuts associated with the “Academic Transformation” process until a more qualified group, led by independently selected faculty and (non-executive) staff, has time to analyze WVU’s current position and propose an alternative plan that respects the mission of the university and its vital role in our state.
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We are stronger, better organized, and more prepared today than we were when the Academic Transformation process began, and we will not stop until the WVU we fell in love with is back in our hands. Join us!
PRESS RELEASE
WEST VIRGINIA CAMPUS WORKERS AND WEST VIRGINIA UNITED STUDENTS UNION JOINT RESPONSE TO WVU BOARD OF GOVERNORS VOTE
Morgantown, WV – Today the West Virginia Board of Governors voted to approve the majority of the draconian cuts to academics proposed by administrators. While the agenda items focused on cuts to specific academic programs, the vote more broadly dismantles tenure protections, shared governance, and the integrity of the institution.
In the News
An Open Letter from Faculty at West Virginia University
The crisis here spells disaster for the future of public education.
AAUP Open letter to the administration of West Virginia University
Today, the AAUP sent a letter to the administration of West Virginia University warning that it “would view with grave concern any terminations of tenured faculty appointments for financial reasons that are effected in a manner inconsistent with” AAUP-recommended standards.
TRANSPARENCY FOR THE COMMON GOOD
THE WVUFACTS Report
HOW DID WE GET HERE AND WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?
We are a group of concerned employees of WVU, affiliated with the West Virginia Campus Workers (join!). We wish to remain anonymous because we think management would retaliate against us if they knew our identities, even though all of the information below is publicly available. We think that the current administration has advanced a misleading narrative about the recent and long-term causes of the current financial crisis at the university and their role in it. Media coverage of the crisis has sometimes failed to fact-check this narrative, essentially repeating what WVU President Gordon Gee and Vice President Rob Alsop say about the situation. As a corrective, we offer below an extremely detailed, fact-based account of the history and causes of WVU’s crisis, as well as documenting some ways in which WVU administrators have not been truthful in their statements concerning this and surrounding issues.