Budget Crisis Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

WVU President Gee Highlights Path Forward, Hints At More Cuts

President Gordon Gee hinted at more cuts for West Virginia University in his State of the University Address Monday.

Gee opened his remarks by acknowledging the impacts of the Academic Transformation process that has cut dozens of programs and close to 150 faculty positions.

He highlighted several of the university’s successes, including a national astronomy award and increased freshman retention rates before returning to the issue of the university’s budget deficit.

WVU is facing a $45 million budget shortfall, and Gee said the 2024 budget was designed to to reduce expenses by around $21 million.

“The academic program review process, we are estimating the university will yield around $17.3 million in savings by fiscal year 27 after phased retirements and teach-out plans run the record,” he said. “However, the majority of savings will be realized in fiscal year 25.”

Reviews of WVU’s Beckley and Keyser campuses, as well as WVU Extension, are slated for January 2024.

Gee said the cuts are setting the university on a course to become the modern land-grant university of the future by focusing on “four priorities within the pillars of education, health, prosperity and purpose.”

“We will serve as the great connector — building partnerships that drive industry, education and public sector growth,” Gee said. “And we will create the great public square our society so desperately needs, providing a safe and nurturing place for civil discourse and debate for all ideas.”

Gee also highlighted an effort to expand access to the university by increasing the number of students who graduate with zero debt. He said about 45 percent of May 2023 graduates earning bachelor’s degrees completed their education with zero debt.

Faculty Question How University Will Avoid Future Cuts

At Monday’s WVU Faculty Senate meeting, Provost Maryanne Reed announced a significant number of faculty — 74 — have voluntarily retired or resigned from the university.

Faculty members at West Virginia University (WVU) have started to learn whether or not their contracts will be renewed.

In response to a $45 million budgetary shortfall, WVU determined last month that it needed to cut 143 faculty positions, called reduction in faculty (RIF).

However, at Monday’s WVU Faculty Senate meeting, Provost Maryanne Reed announced a significant number of faculty — 74 — have voluntarily retired or resigned from the university.

“If there’s any good news, it is that the number of faculty who will be receiving their RIF notices has been reduced by a little over 50 percent,” she said.

That leaves 69 faculty yet to be dismissed.

“I realized that is of little solace for the family of those faculty members who will be losing their positions,” Reed said. “I recognize this is going to be very difficult on those individuals and their families.”

Much of the meeting was taken up by questions from faculty senators to administrators regarding the process and appeals for a reduction in force.

President Gordon Gee was asked how the university is planning to avoid future cuts.

“I cannot predict the future, although I can predict that this transformation process will allow us to have an opportunity to be more forward leaning,” he said.

Gee said the academic transformation will position the university to be competitive and continue to grow and invest. He also pointed to a new state funding formula that will be helpful “to look into the future in a much more positive way.”

Faculty members did not seem satisfied with Gee’s answers. Daniel Totzkay, senator for the Eberly College of Arts & Sciences, reiterated the question again later in the meeting.

“We’re here because we had a $45 million budget deficit,” he said. “How do we not get there again?”

Gee said that the academic transformation process was accelerated by the university’s financial problems, but began before as a response to a changing landscape in higher education.

“Can I guarantee that we’ll no longer have budgetary problems? Of course not,” Gee said. ”But I can guarantee that we’ll work to grow our budget, that we’ll work to put ourselves in a much more competitive position.”

Rob Alsop, WVU’s vice president for strategic initiatives, gave more detail regarding the implementation of new budgetary practices, including a new budgetary model.

“Additionally, we are seeking to enhance the reporting from a budgetary perspective,” he said. “There will be more reporting publicly about, ‘How do our revenues look coming into the fall? What do our expenses look like over the first couple of months going forward?’ And so, what we have done in the past, that we’re redoubling our efforts moving forward, is to be more aggressive and looking at leading indicators.”

WVU Community, Affected By Cuts, Puts On Art Show

More than 40 university faculty, students and alumni from the ceramics, prints and sculpture departments are coming together at a local art gallery to put on an exhibition of their work titled “Deep Cuts.”

Earlier this month, West Virginia University affirmed its decision to cut 28 majors and more than 140 faculty positions.

Now, more than 40 university faculty, students and alumni from the ceramics, prints and sculpture departments are coming together at a local art gallery to put on an exhibition of their work titled “Deep Cuts.”

Reporter Chris Schulz sat down with WVU professor and owner of Morgantown art gallery Galactic Panther, Eli Pollard to discuss the exhibit and the effects of the university’s cuts.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Schulz: Can you tell me a little bit about your teaching at the university?

Pollard: Well, that’s rapidly changing as has been the case for quite a while now. I do teach at the university currently, but this looks like it will be my final semester. I started here in 2008, in the humanities department. I had about 300 students a year teaching Western Civ. Unfortunately, all the faculty from that department has been fired, let go, which was kind of mind-blowing considering the amount of students I had for about $23,000 a year. We made a lot of money for the university, but it wasn’t quite cutting it, I guess.

I was able to transition over to the design department, which has been great. I’ve taught fashion design for them. I’ve taught interior design courses for them as well. Landscape architecture, I do a lot of drawing and foundational courses and portfolio courses for those departments. And I’ve been teaching and designing community development and also developing study abroad courses, which have been amazing for the students. We’ve gone all over.

I started in Central America, then things got a little bit difficult working in Central America, I wasn’t allowed to go there anymore. So I started working more in Europe, and I’ve taken students all over Europe, and we’ve had incredible experiences over there. It looks like my last one of those is going to be Greece this winter. If any students are listening, you have until October 1 to sign up for that program. But I just got word last night that I won’t be able to run those anymore either, which is a huge loss, again, to the students.

Schulz: Western Civ and design, those are two, at least to my mind, pretty disparate topics. How did you end up there?

Pollard: Doing backflips to survive here is kind of the short answer. But in more detail, humanities and western civilization has a lot to do with art history. We had people in that department that had backgrounds in history, and we had people who had backgrounds in fine arts and literature. And because there’s so much content covered in the humanities, in western civilization, each of us were able to kind of develop the course with our own kind of unique perspectives. That fine arts perspective, of course, transfers very nicely into design work, which is a lot of what I do as well.

Schulz: What has been the impact on your role? Are you slated to receive one of these potential RIF notifications in the coming weeks?

Pollard: Yeah, just these past few days, maybe four or five days ago, I was told my position teaching is over. And I had always understood that there was a possibility to continue the education abroad courses if my regular teaching had to come to an end. They have just apparently switched that stance and now I will no longer be able to teach those as of last night or the night before, I was told that one. So, they’re both done.

So my focus is here on the gallery now, which is fine. I’m still trying to kind of grapple with, I’ve been here for 15 years teaching now. It’ll take a moment to adjust, but I’ve had a lot of warning, like I said, my first department was completely slashed. And then I took an impact from an earlier budget cut where I went from full time to adjunct staff. So, I’ve been kind of grappling with this before all this headline news hit. It’s just unfortunate now because I’m seeing so many people I know and respect facing the same kind of future, basically.

Schulz: Are you from West Virginia originally?

Pollard: No, I was born in Florida, but I moved here when I was three, my family’s from here. So, everything except born here, pretty much. My parents, my mom and my stepdad had to leave the state for similar reasons. They were teachers in the school system, well, teacher and school psychologist, and everybody’s getting pink slips in education. So, they headed out of state. I ended up coming back for school. So, I’ve been back and forth many times.

Schulz: You know obviously this has a much wider effect, which is why we’re going to be talking about this event happening later this week. But before we get into that, can you tell me a little bit about the background of Galactic Panther and this space? I understand that it’s not exclusive to Morgantown even.

Pollard: I started Galactic Panther, working on renovating this space right before COVID hit. So, we pretty much opened up here in Morgantown during COVID, which was tricky, of course. It’s already tricky to have an art gallery. To make it extra tricky. I’m on the outskirts of Morgantown and to make it that much more challenging it was opening during COVID. So, kind of a dreamer’s tale I guess. But it’s worked to a certain extent, the gallery is still here in Morgantown. And because of my efforts here, I had a partner who was interested in assisting with opening a second space in the DC area.

We are focusing on art exhibits, of course, as a gallery but we have events in there with live music, and a friend of mine has been doing sound baths if you’re familiar with that, which is kind of a beautiful form of meditation, where he brings in his Moog synthesizer and does full analog sound baths where you just kind of let the sound wash all your troubles away. So some healing events and music events and art events are kind of the real focus.

Schulz: So tell me a little bit more about this week’s event on Friday.

Pollard: This Friday, the 29th from 5:30 to 9:30 is when we’ll be having an event.

Schulz: And what is the event? I understand that it’s titled “Deep Cuts.”

Pollard: It is. “Deep Cuts” is an exhibition from the WVU printmaking, sculpture and ceramics departments. This includes faculty, students, and alumni. So, it’s quite a large grouping of artists, we’ve got about 40 visual artists involved. Many are, in the area, household names, I would say, a lot of talent coming in. I’ve also gotten music booked for the evening as well, by alumni of these departments.

Schulz: How did this all come together?

Pollard: This is something that I came up with, it just felt like a need. There was a necessity that this happen, I felt, and I didn’t see that anybody else was offering this. So, I reached out to the art department. They were very positive in the response and have had a strong hand in curating this exhibit. They’ve reached out to many students and alumni to expand our voice, so to speak. Everybody seemed to really appreciate the idea, so we’re all coming together. And I’ve gotta start running now and make sure we’re all ready for Friday.

Schulz: So many exhibitions are often so focused on a topic or a subject or a medium. I think it’ll certainly be interesting to see so much variety in one show. What are you hearing from the people that are contributing to the show about the need to do this now? Because it seems kind of bittersweet to have simultaneously such a great plethora of local artists coming together, but also the reason behind it is, obviously, a bit of a weight to say the least.

Pollard: Yeah, it is bittersweet. And I have heard a lot of frustration coming from the artists as they’re bringing their work in. It’s just a blow, not just to the students at the university and to the faculty, but to the community. As I mentioned, these artists are doing things like the Morgantown Studio Tour. If that faculty has to leave, then that is going to leave, probably, with them. One of these artists designed our state quarter, one of these artists teaches at BOPARC for everybody’s kids in the summertime. So, there’s huge impacts here, culturally, beyond what’s happening at the university.

These impacts culturally, of course, will have eventual economic impacts, which brings us full circle. Which makes you wonder why these are even happening if the folks making these cuts are doing this for economic reasons. They’re mistaken. They’re deeply mistaken because these are the people that build the economy of a community. They build a community and they build the economy, so if you’re getting rid of the people that do this, you’re shooting yourself in the foot ultimately. That’s part of the message that we’re here to convey.

Schulz: Is there anything else about this situation about this process more generally, that I haven’t given you an opportunity to discuss?

Pollard: This is a free event, it’s Friday from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Donations are greatly appreciated for snacks and musicians and things of that nature. Buying artwork is highly encouraged, we would accept payment plans because this is supporting artists. It also, from day one, Galactic Panther, we have given a portion of all sales to local food banks, and this is no different than any other event. So you’re supporting the artists in the gallery and local people in need as well. So please come out. Please be respectful of the neighborhood but come out numbers and be heard.

I don’t know that I’m the spokesperson for the full process of what’s happening at WVU. I’m just a kind of a modest megaphone for the artists in the area and the community that’s being affected at large. I think this is a great opportunity this weekend to come together and discuss this. This is maybe beyond the 11th hour, but there’s a lot of intelligent people here. If our voices can be heard, maybe we can come up with a positive solution here.

“Deep Cuts” will run through November by appointment at Galactic Panther, 462 Dunkard Ave. To book an appointment to see the exhibition after Friday, contact Eli Pollard at eli@galacticpanther.com

WVU Continues Cuts With Reductions To Library Staff

WVU libraries will be asked to further reduce their budget by up to $800,000 as part of a review of 20 academic support units.

During a Campus Conversation Zoom call Wednesday morning, West Virginia University announced more planned cuts as part of its continuing restructuring in the face of a $45 million budgetary shortfall.

WVU libraries will be asked to further reduce their budget by up to $800,000 as part of a review of 20 academic support units.

Unlike academic units, academic support units are not subject to the Board of Governors’ rules and will not have a chance to appeal.

Mark Gavin, the associate provost for academic, budget, facilities and strategic initiatives, said the cuts will come from reductions in staff positions without disrupting offerings.

“This sounds like a heavy lift for a unit that has already seen reductions, and it is,” he said.

In June, the university announced libraries would reduce spending on collections by 8 percent for fiscal year 2024. In the same announcement it was noted that the libraries’ personnel expenses have already been reduced by 7 percent.

“Under its current structure saving $800,000 from the personnel roster would be rather debilitating, but through restructuring efforts, the Dean of Libraries Karen Diaz is confident she can realize these savings without negatively impacting service levels for students, faculty and staff,” Gavin said.

The university’s recommendation also includes an evaluation of the physical footprint of the libraries, but Gavin said it does not include the closing of any library facilities.

The Teaching and Learning Commons, a unit that provides broad services including classroom support, multimedia production and course and curriculum design support, will have many of its functions moved to other units.

Several positions for instructional designers and multimedia specialists will be moved to the WVU Online unit, as well as micro-credentialing and its related positions. WVU Online’s own recommendation letter states “there is confusion regarding who is responsible and accountable for certain activities/services.”

The management of Zoom and related functions and associated personnel will also be transferred from the Teaching and Learning Commons to an as-yet unnamed unit.

WVU Press and the Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative received recommendations to seek external funding. In the case of the Smith unit, the recommendation specifies “a plan to fully shift the unit’s salaries and operating expenses off of University general funds by FY 2026.”

The Women’s Resource Center and LGBTQ+ Center were among six support units that received a recommendation to continue to the current level of activity with no action. The full list of recommendations for all 20 support units can be found on the university Provost’s website.

Gavin apologized for what he called an “unfortunate and unavoidable” pause to the review of academic support units which began in May.

“The portfolio review process ended up demanding the full attention of our office so that we could deliver on the accelerated timeline set by the Board of Governors,” he said. “We had to pause our review of the ASU and recognize that in doing so, we created unrest and uncertainty.”

Reduction in Faculty

Administrators also briefly touched on details of the reduction in force (RIF) process for academic units that were approved to be cut by the Board of Governors on Sept. 15.

Faculty in the affected units will have until Sept. 30 to complete an “affirmation form” stating their desire to be considered for contract retention. WVU General Counsel Stefanie Taylor said faculty will learn whether the position has been eliminated no later than Oct. 16.

“The week of October 23rd, we will have due process hearings or meetings for certain types of faculty and classified staff that will be subjected to a RIF,” Taylor said. “On October 30, we’ll let folks know the results of those due process meetings and then December 1 is the last date by which you could sign and return a severance agreement if you were offered one.”

WVU Community Speaks Against Program Cuts Ahead Of Board Vote Friday

Dozens of West Virginia University community members spoke out against proposed cuts to university programming ahead of a vote Friday.

Dozens of West Virginia University (WVU) community members spoke out against proposed cuts to university programming ahead of a vote Friday.

For more than three hours Thursday, faculty, students, alumni and community members pleaded with the WVU Board of Governors to reject or freeze proposed cuts to university programs. Speakers were each limited to two minutes.

First to speak was Student Body President Madison Santmyer, who read a student assembly opinion and an assembly resolution, both in opposition to the cuts.

“The new budget model used to make these decisions was not adequately explained by administrators,” she read. “Communication by the university on academic transformation, especially regarding final decisions on the future of academic programs, has failed to meet students where they are, and has been muddled in administrative jargon.”

Brian Woerner, a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, urged the board to carefully consider the implications of the cuts before their vote.

“Graduates from these majors have driven the growth of the software industry in Morgantown, Fairmont and Clarksburg over the last few decades,” he said. “I fear that significant cuts will limit economic development opportunities for the state and surrounding region for years to come.”

Masters student Zachary Gilpin warned of the unintended consequences of cuts beyond their intended programs. He said multiple programs will be impacted that are not listed for termination, or for loss and faculty.

“These programs depend on education and programs for World Languages in order to advance research that you are offering as an example of success in one area,” Gilpin said. “You have to consider that there are downstream impacts. Isolating any given program as one individual particle or one atom to analyze doesn’t make any sense in the complex ecosystem of a university.”

Gilpin also questioned the qualifications of administrators to suggest such cuts.

“I implore you to consider that while your administrators may have expertise when it comes to gutting worker’s comp in West Virginia, perhaps they’re not the best whenever it comes to recommending how to reform education at the level of WVU,” he said.

Gilpin was not alone in criticizing the administrators who have proposed the cuts.

“We’re also very well aware that the administration’s salaries have increased by $50 million since 2013,” said undergraduate Miles Case. “You’ve already done significant damage to our university. And so now it’s your duty and your obligation to fix it.”

He then turned his attention on President Gordon Gee, who received a lopsided vote of no confidence from the faculty last week.

“You were correct when you said that higher education is under attack, but I think you forgot to mention that you were the one who was attacking it,” Case said.

Many took the time to discuss the impact the university had on their lives, and how the proposed cuts would have limited their opportunities.

First generation college student Olivia Dowler said a college education wasn’t expected of her.

“Please don’t make me have to say that I’m embarrassed to go here,” she said. “Please don’t make me feel guilty whenever I tell students that they should come here. I love this state and the school. And so to all these people, that’s why we’re here today.”

Not one person spoke in favor of the proposed cuts.

The board will meet again Friday at 9 a.m. to vote.

Gee Responds To Questions At Faculty Senate Meeting

West Virginia University faculty and students had a lot of questions for the university president about looming cuts to programs during Monday’s Faculty Senate meeting.

West Virginia University faculty and students had a lot of questions about looming cuts to programs during Monday’s Faculty Senate meeting.

WVU President Gordon Gee delivered a statement addressing what he called misrepresentations of the academic transformation process at the start of the meeting.

“I will not accept the narrative being promulgated that we have mismanaged this university, where we are making it a lesser university,” he said. “That is absolutely far from the truth.”

He dismissed claims that the university’s budgets were designed around the aspiration of growing enrollment, or that the university’s debt load increased by 55 percent. Gee also emphasized that the university has been addressing areas of concern since 2016.

“Almost every program that was put on watch was told three years ago that they were going to be recommended for discontinuance because they were not operating at an optimum level including declining enrollments,” he said. “They had multiple opportunities to bring forth viable options for change.”

After his statement, Gee spent more than a half hour answering questions from faculty members and students, many of whom questioned his assertions.

Asked by one student if he would take a pay cut to help mitigate the budget shortfall, Gee responded that he had not had a pay raise in the 10 years since his return to the university.

“I don’t advertise that I also am a major donor to the university, I have given a substantial amount of money,” Gee said. “During the pandemic, there was a decision made that we would not cut any salaries for the teaching faculty. But we did ask our senior administration and our athletic department – for all of them to cut their salaries. And they did.”

Douglas Terry, an English professor in Beckley, asked how eliminating World Languages would lead to WVU providing a robust liberal arts education.

“We’re in a modern country, we have many modern ways now to teach foreign languages and to teach and to engage in culture,” Gee said. “There is not just one way to salvation, there’s a number of ways of salvation and that’s exactly what we are doing and what we’re going to explore.”

Gee also used the opportunity to discuss the World Language Department’s performance issues.

“They had a student faculty ratio better than the department of surgery and on top of it, they said, ‘Well, we’re making $800,000.’” he said. “That is false, from the very start, because what they’re doing is they’re counting student hours. That is someone else’s money.”

Mathematics professor Ela Celikbas asked about the impact of the proposal to cut the university’s math PhD, particularly on math education.

“Mathematics is critical to our sciences, but it doesn’t mean that we need to do it the way that everyone else does it,” Gee said. “The fundamental issue is, math is critical. But not every aspect of mathematics in this state at this university is critical.”

The remainder of the meeting was focused on the details of the reduction in force and non renewal process if the Board of Governors votes Friday to approve cuts to programs.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Board of Governors released an open letter jointly with Gee reiterating many of the points he made during the Faculty Senate meeting.