MORGANTOWN — Uncertainty remains the key word as West Virginia University continues to work out how Trump administration executive actions will affect the university.

WVU Vice President for Research Fred King and WVU President Gordon Gee both addressed those concerns for the Faculty Senate on Monday.

King spoke in the context of grants and contracts facing possible termination.

“Since the end of January, it’s been very emotional,” he said.

On any given Friday, he said, there’s a new executive order. Lawsuits opposing it are filed the following Monday, and a court injunction soon follows.

“I think it’s important to not be emotional as we think about this. Our approach as a university is to be calm and rational,” King said.

For example, WVU is facing a loss of $12 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health placing a 15 percent cap on funding for indirect research costs. In early April, a federal judge issued a permanent injunction barring that move, which the NIH is appealing.

King said WVU’s legal office works with affected departments and such orders are appealed when it makes sense to do so. The university also works with the state’s congressional delegation, often behind the scenes, trying to help them understand the impacts of the various executive actions.

Most of the discussion is behind the scenes, he said, because the situations and negotiations are delicate.

Internally, he said, they monitor the actions of three groups for guidance: the Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities Council on Research, the Council of Graduate Schools and the Council of Government Relations.

They hold two meetings per week, he said. One is an administrative group that reviews executive actions and their impacts, and informs the D.C. delegation. They also look at how the university should respond and how to ameliorate the impact on campus.

The other meeting is with deans and the provost’s office to share information.

“A lot of work is being done on this — although it’s not necessarily being done wholly in public,” King said.

It’s a time to respond rationally and calmly, he said.

“Fear and panic does us no good. It hurts our blood pressure, but at the end of the day does not really solve the problem.”

Parting words

Gee is retiring at the end of June and made his final presentation to the Faculty Senate.

Starting from his first term as WVU president in 1980, he said, he’s attended about 150 Senate meetings.

“Rather than a collection of buildings, a university is a gathering of scholars,” he said, calling the current faculty talented and energetic. “I’m grateful to all of you for the work that you’ve done.”

This is a period of transition for both WVU and himself, he said, and he views it with optimism.

“I have no doubt that the best is yet to come for me, for the university, for all of the people in this room. This is a tumultuous time and we’ve heard that.”

WVU is a land-grant, R1 university in a small state, and Gee said he’s often asked how the school deals with the tumultuous actions coming out of Washington.

“We are a unique American institution, and we make our living off of doing things differently and being very distinctive. And I think that distinction will serve us very well over the next period of time,” he said.

Gee and the faculty haven’t always had the smoothest relationship. In the midst of academic transformation in September 2023, the faculty overwhelmingly passed a resolution of no confidence in the school’s president.

But on Monday, following Gee’s comments, Faculty Senate chair Diana Davis offered a few words of praise for him, noting his support of shared governance and the role of the Faculty Senate in that shared governance. They don’t always agree, but that’s how shared governance works, she said.

“We do appreciate your willingness to consistently engage with us and to include our perspective in the major decisions of this university,” Davis said. “We wish you well in retirement.”