BY DAVE WILSON
While the West Virginia University community comes to terms with recommendations that 32 majors and 169 faculty positions may be eliminated, President Gordon Gee said he remains steadfast in his belief that the university is making the right moves and listening to market forces.
“Do you think it’s fun to be on the front page of the newspapers talking about these kinds of things?” asked Gee on Monday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
“No. I really feel a hell of a lot of pain about how this affects our colleagues, my friends, my neighbors. So, I take this very seriously. This is not anything that I love doing, but you know what? I believe in what I’m doing, and I believe what this institution could be.”
On Friday, the WVU administration released the preliminary recommendations from a review of nearly half of its academic programs, which included eliminating 32 of 338 majors.
“I think we’re all sort of cycling through the various processes of grief, denial, anger, but I think most of us are really focused on the students right now and how this is going to affect all of our students,” said Lisa DiBartolomeo, a professor of Russian studies and Slavic and East European studies at WVU.
DiBartolomeo’s entire department of World Languages has been identified for discontinuance and all 24 faculty let go.
DiBartolomeo, who was also a guest Monday on “Talkline,” said faculty plan to appeal the recommendation but insisted they have already laid out their best arguments to retain the department.
“It’s going to be a little tricky trying to come up with new arguments because we’ve already fielded so many fantastic strong arguments in support of our case, but you know, we’re a bunch of smart people. We’re going to try really hard and we’re going to figure out a way to convince folks that world language education at WVU is critical and needs to be retained,” said DiBartolomeo.
Reducing costs has been a primary driver of what the university has described as an academic transformation. WVU is dealing with a $45 million budget shortfall, which could expand to $75 million by 2028. DiBartolomeo insists the World Languages department is profitable, bringing in $800,000 a year for the university.
According to Gee, the numbers do not add up and students would rather dedicate their resources to other studies. Gee contends the changes are being driven by where enrollment is going.
“What World Languages does is teach a lot of student credit hours and the largest driver of that student credit hour production is delivering service courses that allow every college bachelor’s student to fulfill an imposed language requirement. If not required, those students would take other courses to fulfill degree requirements.”
Gee is confident the steps being taken now will lead to the university’s growth.
“Our problem has always been in retention and graduation, and that’s where we really have to put our time and energy now. I am absolutely convinced because we have increased our market share,” said Gee.
“Even while all these demographic challenges have changed, it has not been the recruitment of our students. It’s been the retention and the focus on graduation. And that’s the reason why we’re putting every ounce of energy into saying we’re going to put our students first.”
One thing Gee is adamant he will not do is to request more funding from the state legislature to fix what he is convinced is a structural problem.
“I have told this to the governor, I’ve told this to the president of the Senate, to the speaker [of the House of Delegates] that I’m not going to come in ask you for $45 million because it’s a structural deficit, we have to solve that problem,” Gee said.
Gee credited the legislature for allocating $50 million for the WVU Cancer Institute and other funding for deferred maintenance costs.
WVU faculty members have until next Friday to appeal the recommendations. After the appeal hearings, the WVU BOG will vote on the final recommendations on Sept. 15.
