The Evisceration Of A Public University

[appalachiablue]

- 'The Evisceration of a Public University,' By Lisa M. Corrigan, The Nation, Aug. 16, 2023.

West Virginia University is being gutted, and it’s a preview for what’s in store for higher education. (Photo: Woodburn Hall, downtown campus, WVU, Morgantown, W.Va.).

Last week, West Virginia University (WVU) announced a plan to raze some of its core programs. The public land-grant university intends to eliminate 9 percent of its majors (32 programs total), all of its foreign language programs, and 16 percent of its full-time faculty members (169 in total). The departments targeted for these massive cuts count Truman, Marshall, Fulbright, and Rhodes scholars among their alumni.

These cuts were recommended by the consulting firm rpk GROUP, and there’s every reason to believe they’re a trial balloon for doing this elsewhere.

Anyone who cares about higher education should be alarmed about what this portends for public universities. These changes are the functional equivalent of an atomic bomb at WVU, and stand to make it increasingly difficult for the institution to meet its stated mission to create “a diverse and inclusive culture that advances education, healthcare and prosperity for all by providing access and opportunity.” So why is it doing this?

WVU is the largest university in West Virginia. It is labeled an R1 university under the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, meaning it is in the top tier of high research activity among US universities; it is the state’s only R1 school. Like other land-grant universities, it was created by the Morrill Act in 1862, which allocated land and financial support from the federal government to help reshape education in response to the Industrial Revolution.

Land-grant institutions were charged with educating rural students across the country outside of the elite private universities, which were driven by tuition and legacy admissions. Today, like many land-grant universities, WVU sits at the convergence of several cultural and economic tectonic shifts that are working in tandem to radically transform education. Foremost among these shifts is the changing economic climate of higher ed. WVU, like many higher-education institutions, has been plagued by gross financial mismanagement by administrators and consultants...

- Read More,
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/wvu-cuts-higher-education/
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- 'WVU students plan dual walkouts Monday in protest of proposed cuts,' By Mike Nolting, WV Metro News, Aug. 20, 2023, https://wvmetronews.com/2023/08/20/wvu-students-plan-dual-walkouts-monday-in-protest-of-proposed-cuts/

[LakeArenal]

1. They've been trying that at UW Madison since 2010.

[appalachiablue]

3. Sorry to hear that, hold steady in the wake of this attack.

[moniss]

13. Yes along with their attacks

on primary education. Once Walker came in the exodus of experienced, talented teachers became a rush. Median pay is down over 10%. Huge cuts to benefits. They are constantly being screamed at by MAGA types at school board meetings all over the state and by MAGA clowns brought into the state to harangue the teachers and administrators. The Department of Public Instruction released a report showing that 1 in 3 teachers who graduate college here and then begin to teach here leave within 5 years. Teachers in Wisconsin are constantly having to pay from their own pocket for course materials and supplies because of lack of adequate budgets. That lack of adequate money for school budgets is driven by the "no tax" GQP types.

Most people don't know that even if the local parents want to voluntarily kick in extra money to help their teachers they are severely restricted with rigid formulas enacted by the state GQP as to how much "per pupil spending" is to take place. They threaten to take away a portion of state funding if the parents want to chip in on their own and buy supplies/equipment etc.

So the rate is skyrocketing for "emergency" licenses for people to be able to fill classroom positions outside of their expertise and training. Even so the drain of stopgap personnel continues at a high level with the state reporting the shortage of substitute teachers to be at crisis levels. Most people do not know that the average pay for a substitute teacher in Wisconsin is about $20.00+ per hour. The grocery warehouse pays you more to unload a truck. And they wonder why they can't get people to be teachers or to be willing to be subs. All while getting screamed at, belittled, threatened and blamed for not turning miracles within days or weeks to correct years of poor parenting and countering the effects of ongoing decades of social ills.

The amazing thing to me is that they even get as many to hang in there as they do. Most of us realize we made it through school with our teachers helping us. But there are huge numbers who believe they all on their own "got through" school. The latter group is where Republicans come from.

[LakeArenal]

14. I had two siblings and a friend retire from testing when Walker ruined everything.

[blm]

2. NCGOP took a cleaver to UNC system as quickly as they could

when they gained control of the NC General Assembly and had a corporate toady governor McCrory in 2013 allowing Art Pope to carry out his plans for the demolition - especially targeting UNC-Chapel Hill and black colleges in the state system.

[appalachiablue]

4. So bad, trying to hack away at educ., democracy, progress nationally. Targeting NC is a real shame.

[blm]

7. Wisconsin and NC were ALEC test states.

Both had great university systems. Both were targeted early by ALEC’s fascist agenda.

[appalachiablue]

8. Ah yes, powerful ALEC damaging America state by state. Lewis Powell would be joyous..

[3Hotdogs]

5. Rutgers U. and football. A case study on how to fuck up what was a great school.

[appalachiablue]

6. Didn't know that. Good school, what a shame. TX for posting.

[lapucelle]

9. How so? Rutgers still has robust undergraduate and graduate program offerings.

https://sasundergrad.rutgers.edu/major/list-of-majors-and-minors

https://grad.rutgers.edu/academics/graduate-programs?area=All

[3Hotdogs]

15. Fewer tenured professors, faculty strikes, $hundreds of millions wasted on a football program that

few people in N.J. care about.

Go to State College, Pa. and there is enthusiasm about the football season. I lived in N.J. all my life. I have NEVER heard anyone bring up Rutgers football as a topic of conversation.

Giants? Jets? These team are talked about once in a while. Rutgers? No one cares.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

10. Meanwhile India and China expand access to higher education, training the scientists and

Last edited Sun Aug 20, 2023, 04:38 PM - Edit history (7)

engineers and researchers of the future…what is going to happen, already happening…America is dumbing down precisely while it’s main future economic competitors are gearing up.

India Rising, Identical Rise to China, delayed




…..

The trend of rapidly declining poverty unabated to today…great news needing spreading.

The key is mass education.The best measurement of a nations greatness isn’t military or business or billionaire numbers or even political system…it’s reduction in poverty of the People governed, to my mind.

…….

https://gdc.unicef.org/resource/india-2024-highly-educated-india

India has seen a rapid expansion in the higher education sector since 2001. There has been a dramatic rise in the number of higher education institutions (HEI) and enrolment has increased four-fold.

[appalachiablue]

12. ++

[mike_c]

11. Gordon Gee destroys another public university

Sad.