WVU to Cut $45M in Spending by 2020

West Virginia University’s president says the school must reduce spending by $45 million by 2020.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that President E. Gordon Gee announced Monday during his State of the University address that cuts will be coming.

Gee declined to call the cuts a “problem,” saying that it will allow the university a chance to better evaluate programs’ strengths and weaknesses. He says he wants to improve the state’s economy by finding new avenues for economic development.

The university has lost $30 million of its base budget in recent years, with only 14 percent of the budget coming from state funds now.

During his first WVU presidency, from 1981-85, Gee says the state funding for the university was between 60 percent and 70 percent.