Tuesday, October 31, 2023

PBS at WVU

On tonight’s PBS NewsHour, a segment about eliminating programs and faculty positions at West Virginia University.

According to NewsHour correspondent Hari Sreenivasan, thirty-two majors and 169 faculty positions are being eliminated. According to university president E. Gordon Gee, it’s seventy faculty positions. The other faculty cuts, he says, are “due to retirements and a variety of other things.” I would guess that at least some faculty who haven’t gone elsewhere have chosen to retire rather than be fired.

Sreenivasan spoke with Jonah Katz, an associate professor (i.e., tenured) in the Department of World Languages, Literatures, & Linguistics. Katz and his department are being eliminated:

“I think the level of reputational damage that the university is going to take will not be survivable. I don’t think that this will be a viable research university in five to ten years. And it essentially means that there’s no real tenure here anymore. And so nobody is going to come teach here unless they have absolutely no other choice.”
Related posts
College completion : Dickinson State, firing : Emporia State, firing : WVU cuts

comments: 2

Anonymous said...

and for a different viewpoint on the wvu cuts: https://beltmag.com/the-cost-of-loss-at-wvu/

i'm waiting to see the results of the kansas board of regents study for our state schools.

kirsten

Michael Leddy said...

More a complementary point of view, no?

I found Gee’s flailing — no student will have to leave the state! — pathetic. Both faculty and students will leave.