As the wailing and gnashing of teeth continues in Morgantown, West Virginia University officials are to be commended for doing the right thing when they cut costs in the face of a $45 million deficit. Cuts approved by the Board of Governors included 12 graduate and doctorate programs, and 132 staff members including 38 faculty members. Though there was undoubtedly more fat to cut, a 3% tuition increase also was approved.
“This process is obviously challenging and at times painful for the university community. It is, however, necessary,” WVU President Gordon Gee said.
He is right. Private businesses know that pain all too well, and they know they must do what is necessary to continue to stay afloat and fulfill their missions.
Meanwhile, the cuts may also be a reflection of changes in the way students are thinking about whether the expense of extended educations will lead to careers that help them pay back that debt.
In fact, only three graduate programs have been entirely preserved: special education, communications studies and journalism.
A review of all academic programs is underway now, “with the added goal of creating a smaller and more focused program portfolio,” said Maryanne Reed, provost and vice president of academic affairs for West Virginia University.
“Administrators claim down-sizing will be ‘student-centered,’ but the inconsistencies in program review practices suggest the academic ‘transformation’ is, at best, proceeding by financial guess work,” the faculty members wrote in a letter.
And while it is predictable that faculty is complaining about the very needed cuts, university officials must not move forward without doing two things.
First, they must ensure they are not holding on to other unnecessary programs and expenses that should have been part of these cuts. And second, they must prove to future students that the expense of a WVU education will better prepare them for their careers — even better if those careers provide incomes that help them pay back any debt incurred.