CHARLESTON – On the eve of a decision on the elimination of dozens of degree programs and faculty positions, members of the West Virginia Board of Governors heard opposition to the plan.

The WVU Board of Governors met Thursday at the Erickson Alumni Center on the Morgantown campus to hear public comments regarding the final recommendations from the Office of the Provost for its Academic Transformation plan. The board will meet again today to vote on the final recommendations.

More than 60 members of the public spoke, including professors, students, and alumni. All speakers were opposed to the proposed program and faculty cuts. While the meeting began at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, public comments began at 11:30 a.m. and went on for nearly three hours.

After phase two of an academic program portfolio review over the summer and program review appeals conducted in August and early September, the university is considering eliminating 27 programs and merging three other programs into existing degrees.

Programs on the chopping block include most of the world languages programs, master’s and doctorate programs in mathematics, the master’s program for public administration, masters’ and doctorate programs for higher education administration, and more.

“The MPA program has served the land-grant missions for over 50 years and has maintained national and international accreditation since its inception since 1970,” said Margaret Stout, a professor of public administration at WVU. “We first received notice of concerns about our program in July of this year. Prior to that, we’ve never heard doubts from our deans, provosts, presidents, or Board of Governors.”

“I know how hard our department and our colleagues across the university have already tried to persuade the Provost’s Office of our value,” said Lisa DiBartolomeo, a teaching professor of Russian Studies and Slavic/Eastern European Studies at WVU, prior to reading statements from colleagues within the Department of World Languages.

“West Virginians are already cut off from much international education and opportunities,” DiBartolomeo continued. “Reducing foreign language education at WVU will cripple young people looking to start global careers. West Virginia students and out-of-state students deserve the best education that WVU can offer, and that must include robust language and culture studies.”

Another 13 programs could see reductions in faculty, including the College of Creative Arts; the School of Public Health; and the departments of English, Communications Studies, Chemistry, Computer Science, and others.

“It’s baffling to me how the administration thinks it can make perfect decisions on staffing without input from the affected units,” said Brian Powell, a teaching assistant professor in WVU’s Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. “For the Provost’s Office to suggest that Lane lose full-time faculty as a result in a reduction of student credit hours in a course not taught by full-time faculty is nonsensical.”

All told, the number of faculty that could be out of a job following the Board of Governors meeting Friday could number as many as 140. Affected faculty will be notified Oct. 16, with positions being eliminated in April and faculty being offered 12 weeks of severance.

A combination of years of decreased enrollment, a lowered amount of state funding that has only come back up slightly in recent years, an increase in the base budget and tuition rates over that same time, in recent increases in health insurance premiums have resulted in a $45 million hole in WVU’s fiscal year 2024 budget, a hole that could grow to $75 million by 2028 if left unchecked.

The university has already cut 135 positions, including 38 faculty members, following approval of its $1.2 billion fiscal year 2024 budget in June. However, WVU President E. Gordon Gee has said in the last few days that this $45 million structural deficit does not represent a “crisis.”

The proposed cuts have outraged many members of WVU’s faculty, students and alumni. Last week, WVU’s University Assembly, consisting of most of the university’s full-time faculty, voted 797-100 in favor of a no-confidence resolution against Gee, as well as a resolution calling for a freeze of the academic transformation.

The WVU Student Government submitted two resolutions to the Board of Governors opposing the cuts, with a number of students speaking out Thursday.

“I’m not sure how tapped in you all are into the students, but anyone who is knows there is something going on here and they don’t support these recommendations,” said Matthew Kolb, a senior mathematics undergraduate at WVU and a member of the West Virginia United Student Union. “We care, and we care a lot…keep our university strong and keep offering diverse education for the people of West Virginia.”

“I deeply love this university and this state. I am gold and blue all the way through, so today I stand before you as a student who is anxious, scared, angry, and deeply, deeply saddened by the recommendations handed down by the Provost’s Office,” said Treasure Barberich-Wyckoff, a classified staff member at WVU and a 2016 graduate of the university who was seeking a master’s degree in higher education administration, one of the programs proposed for discontinuation.

“It is a travesty that the brilliant, dedicated, and compassionate future leaders of higher ed – my phenomenal classmates – may not get the education we were promised,” Barberich-Wyckoff continued. “Equally upsetting is the knowledge that future generations of West Virginians may not have this option at all.”

Gee, university administration, and the Board of Governors have gone on the defense in recent weeks, calling the proposed cuts necessary. Earlier this week, Gee and Taunja Willis-Miller, chair of the Board of Governors, issued an open letter on behalf of WVU signed by past chairs of the Board of Governors and representatives of the WVU Foundation and WVU Alumni Association pushing back against what Gee caller “erroneous information” during a Faculty Senate meeting Monday.

“I know we all care so much about West Virginia University, and we will have disagreements along the way around how to meet the challenges of the day,” Gee said. “I can accept that. But I will not accept the narrative being promulgated that we have mismanaged this University, or we are making it a lesser university. That is furthest from the truth.”

University officials maintain that WVU will continue to offer more than 300 undergraduate and graduate programs across its multiple schools, colleges, and health sciences after the Board of Governor’s approves of the proposed program/faculty cuts.

“West Virginia University is the same University you know and love – and we will continue to provide a high-quality education that provides both academic and personal growth for our students,” Monday’s open letter from the current and former Board of Governors chairs. “In doing so, our goal is to create a more focused academic portfolio aligned with student demand, career opportunities and market trends.”

(Adams can be contacted at sadams@newsandsentinel.com)