EDITOR’S NOTE: LTTEs regarding WVU Academic Transformation
From now until Aug. 31, we will open letters to the editor to WVU alumni and current and former staff and faculty, including those who live out of state, for any who would like to comment on WVU’s Academic Transformation. EMAIL submissions to opinion@dominionpost.com. MAIL submissions to: The Dominion Post, 1251 Earl L. Core Road, Morgantown, WV 26505. INCLUDE your name, hometown and phone number for confirmation. Letters should not exceed 300 words. Out-of-state alumni should include their graduation year and degree. Staff/faculty should include their position and years of service.
Cut admin positions, pay — not programs
May we assume that with all the downsizing of the WVU faculty, there will be at least a proportionate number of the much-oversized administrative structure also eliminated?
It would make sense that cutting those with huge salaries might save some faculty positions. Of course, it won’t happen, as those positions are part of the “good-old-boys’ club” and, as such, are a protected class.
What a mess! If you were to fire one $250,000 administrator, you would save about three associate professor positions. Which is more important?
WVU is a business and, as a business, should be run like any other. Those who are not doing their jobs should be removed. If you are going to pay someone a huge salary to do a job, he should bear the responsibility for his decisions.
Removing some of the high-paid superfluous positions at WVU would save several faculty positions and, after all, teaching is the main purpose of the university.
William Skidmore
Morgantown
Professor Emeritus
WVU School of Music
(38 years)
Diversity = offering diverse programs
I am Sydha Salihu from Morgantown, a faculty member in biology at WVU for 16 years.
On Aug. 11, WVU announced the awful news that it was discontinuing several educational programs, including world languages.
The timing of this announcement could not be more devastating with the new academic year beginning Aug. 16. It would be hard to share in the enthusiasm of the incoming freshmen and returning upperclassmen as our minds and hearts will be with our fellow faculty who will soon be without jobs. This will certainly affect the productivity (to say nothing of morale) of some faculty whose colleagues were affected.
The university may justify cutting down several disciplines, along with the faculty who taught those courses, by citing lower student enrollment bringing less tuition. But evidently this decrease in revenue has not affected the salaries or positions of the administrators. If the student population has decreased, it only makes sense that the number of administrative positions should decline accordingly.
I would also like to bring to your attention the university’s promotion of diversity and inclusivity in recent years. Would diversity not include diversity of disciplines on our campus? Diversity in the broad sense means diversity in all spheres of life, which should include different ways of thinking. Having a diversity of departments adds to the campus culture and these departments serve our students in a different manner than the sciences can.
As a faculty member teaching non-majors, my most interesting students have been from other disciplines. Sometimes it is a student studying dance or Spanish who challenges me to analyze situations better, as they have a different viewpoint. As a faculty member, I learn from students from other majors.
In my opinion, discontinuing these departments is reducing the diversity of our WVU culture and goes against the university’s diversity mission. I hope WVU reconsiders its recommendations and strives to serve students, faculty, staff and our community in a fair and equitable manner.
Sydha Salihu
Morgantown
WVU becoming ‘GETAJOBQUICK Tech’
I am simply incredulous and appalled at the decision to eliminate the world languages program at WVU. In a time when greater understanding and acknowledgment of different cultures is critical to the future success of our country and our state, having no courses to prepare students for the global challenges of the 21st century is unconscionable.
As a graduate of the university (M.A. French, 1970), a third generation of WVU graduates and the spouse and a parent of two Fulbright scholars, the languages they learned have been critical in their lives and successes.
WVU must reconsider its decision and reinstate this program before it becomes necessary to change the name of our storied flagship university to “GETAJOBQUICK Tech.”
Susan Seitz
Morgantown
