MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Monongalia County Democratic Party has released a letter calling on the governor to use surplus funds to improve the financial condition of West Virginia University.
The letter is titled Stop the Politics and Save Our University: Governor Justice Must Act to Preserve Higher Education in West Virginia blames the financial state of the university on “partisan politics” and calls for a special session in August to address the issue. Mon County Democratic Party Chair Mindy Salango states that the letter is in response to close to $45 million in budget cuts that have begun at WVU.
“We’re very concerned about the university and it’s status as a land grant university, and maintaining that status, and how all of the cost are going to affect, not only education for our students, but educating our educators,” said Salango on the party’s thoughts on WVU’s budget situation.
In the letter, it was stated that the Mon County Democratic Party views education as a human right, an economic driver, and the key to an even brighter future for families in West Virginia. It was also stated that they viewed the funding cuts as a result of partisan politics that could affect children in the Mountain State in a long term aspect. With the expectation of WVU cutting hundreds of jobs, Salango and the Mon County Democratic Party viewed the lack of financial support on the state level as potentially hazardous to the labor market which could lead to consequences down the line.
“We’re already struggling to find teachers, and if they can’t get educated here at our flagship university in the state, where is that going to leave the education of our children,” Salango said.
Salango also stated the prompting of the release of the letter was due to the timing of several announcements. One of them is the announcement from the West Virginia University’s Provost’s Office that dozens of key degree programs will be on the chopping block due to a lack of funding. Programs such as elementary education, mining engineering, agriculture, parks and tourism, forestry, public health, music, were among those pointed out as important areas of study that surplus funds could be directed. The locality of WVU and the lack of state action with the cuts moving forward prompted the open letter by the Mon County Democratic Party.
“With the University being here in Mon County, it feels incumbent upon us to reach out and try to compelle the governor to take action,” Salango said.
To solve the finanical woes of WVU, the Mon County Democratic Party offered two solutions. The first, reconsideration by WVU Administration of down the line cuts and instead focus their efforts on reducing top-heavy administrative bloat. The letter also called for the use of $451 million in unappropriated budget surplus funds that was announced by Governor Jim Justice two weeks ago. With one of the state’s largest employers cutting jobs, Salango and the Mon County Democratic Party urged Justice to call for a special session to avoid the loss of education jobs that could affects systems from pre-K to post-graduate. Not only to address WVU but for other state concerns as well.
“It’s not a true surplus if cutbacks in funding for higher education are going to cause something like this to happen with WVU,” said Salango. “I mean look what’s going on with PEIA, our roads, it just hoarding money right now,” she said.
The letter was endorsed by West Virginia Democratic Party Chair Mike Pushkin ahead of it’s release. You can read the full letter here.