MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University Faculty Senate has received a petition calling for a vote on a no-confidence resolution for President Gordon Gee and another resolution to freeze the current transformation.
Gee acknowledged the stress for everyone involved in the process and admitted higher education in Morgantown is being disrupted, but not dismantled. He explained that accounts of the university being “gutted’ or ‘eviscerated” are simply untrue. But, he said it is true they are making difficult decisions to cut programs that are not cost effective and the transformation process has been going on since 2021.
Gee called the process of transformation “pruning to grow.”
“I have two responsibilities. I hate the one responsibility I have, which is the fact that we are eliminating some friends of mine, faculty and others,” Gee said. “But, I also have responsibility to those 90-plus percent of people that are here so they can stay here, so they can have a life.”
Field Education Director and Clinical Instructor at the WVU School of Social Work, Lindsey Rinehart is concerned about what will be left after the transformation process is complete. Rinehart said she is being asked to make changes that could drastically change the way her classes operate today. She believes those changes will not add to the student experience in a positive way.
“I’m kind of being told i need to redesign my courses and cut them out because I’m going to have to start offering them to almost twice as many students as they were designed for, for the foreseeable future,” Rinehart said. “So, at what point are we pruning to grow here? We’re going to damage our program.”
The $45 million in cuts under consideration are needed to keep the university financially viable, but Gee said the investments that could come in the future because of the cuts could lead more people to WVU for an education.
“We have certain programs that have over just extended themselves and we can no longer sustain those based on student numbers,” Gee said. ” We have to listen to our student numbers, they vote with their feet and they’ve doing that rather dramatically.”
Vice President of Strategic Initiatives Rob Alsop broke down how the $45 million in cuts will be reached. The university recognized about $21 million in cuts this summer in unspecified cost reductions and about 130 staff members who did not renew contracts. If none of the current appeals of cuts of 32 programs and 169 faculty positions are granted Alsop said that would equal $16 to $18 million in savings. Still to meet the $45 million budget cut number the administration would have to find another $6 million in savings.
“As we work through the Academic Service Unit (ASU) review and the Administrative Service Unit review and we look at what remains we’ll need to propose additional cuts in the university to close that gap,” Alsop said.
Alsop also said the new budget model for the university will be introduced this fall. The new budget model project has been led by Lisa Sharpe, Assistant Vice President of Financial Integrations, Strategic Initiatives with a team of more than a dozen members of executive leadership.
“A new level of transparency and accountability for everyone as we move forward and have a better understanding of What drives our revenues and what drives our expenses so we’re in a much better position earlier to address our challenges going forward,” Alsop said.