Downtown campus of West Virginia university and Woodburn hall as dusk and lights give a warm glow to Morgantown WV. #WVU #Morgantown #BuyIntoArt https://www.pictorem.com/831932/Downtown%20campus%20of%20West%20Virginia%20university%20at%20nightfall.html

Statement from #AmericanComparativeLiteratureAssociation (#ACLA) about #WVU and #Gee's atrocious elimination of #faculty and #opportunity, esp. in #languages: "To eradicate
the prospect of learning a language at a public university is to preempt access to
the worlds it opens for our students."

All academics should be following what's happening at #WVU and advocating for shared governance, unions, & the liberal arts on their campuses

An Open Letter from Faculty at West Virginia University

https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/an-open-letter-from-faculty-at-west-virginia-university/

#academicmastodon #academia

August Blue Moon rises over the WVU Campus in Morgantown, WV. Available now as a print. #WVU #Moon #Morgantown https://www.pictorem.com/833347/Supermoon%20rises%20in%20the%20sky%20above%20Morgantown%20in%20West%20Virginia.html

#OSS in #HigherEd

#WVU Libraries will offer a three-part series of workshops for graduate students and faculty who are interested in learning how to use R and RStudio.

RStudio is #OpenSource software that allows users to perform data analysis and visualization functions just like proprietary software programs, such as SPSS and STATA, on your personal computer for free.

#EdTech #EdTechChat #HigherEducation #OpenEdTech #OpenEducation #OpenEdu

https://enews.wvu.edu/articles/2023/09/06/learn-how-to-use-r-and-rstudio-for-research

Holy hell it’s game day! #WVU

I am a 1995 graduate of #WVU's MA program in Foreign Languages (Linguistics). Gee was President then, too.
I studied #Linguistics (Ph.D., 2004) at Ohio State U., also partly under President #gee
With more experience as President, his results are worse than ever. It isn't supposed to go in that direction. Now he wants to slide into a peaceful retirement.
He. Doesn't. Deserve. That.
https://truthout.org/articles/will-wvus-draconian-cuts-become-a-blueprint-for-austerity-across-higher-ed/?mc_cid=739f7e4b35

A moody black and white rendition of the famous Woodburn Hall at WVU in Morgantown, West Virginia. After a December snowfall. #WVU #Morgantown #BuyIntoArt https://www.pictorem.com/531866/Black%20and%20White%20Woodburn%20Hall%20at%20West%20Virginia%20University.html

@rglueckler @mviktoro @academicchatter you're missing a lot of context here about a new budget model at the university and the decimation of our neighbor flagship state University to the south (#WVU) over similar policies prioritizing buildings over people.

I applaud the students at #WVU who are standing up for their education. West Virginians deserve the opportunity to attend a high-quality public university. Invest in students and educators, not buildings and administrators! #highered @academicsunite https://triblive.com/local/regional/west-virginia-university-students-plan-walkout-to-protest-cuts-in-academic-programs/

@emilymbender Dr. Corrigan is in my field, and it’s a great essay. That said, she didn’t have anything to say about the demographic cliff. Population decline in West Virginia was a major factor in this problem, and humanities professors seem oblivious to the problem the demographic cliff poses to our institutions. The battle of the next decade will be over how the demographic cliff is managed. #WVU illustrates why we need a strategy and plan lest this happen elsewhere.

"One cannot help but wonder if the cuts are driven by a hostility to liberal arts education couched in the sterile ambiguity of financial considerations."

https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/08/west-virginia-university-cuts-programs.html

#WVU #HigherEd #Academia #LiberalArts

Proposed budget cuts at West Virginia University:

"The state’s flagship school will no longer teach world languages or creative writing — a sign, its president says, of the future at many public universities."

New York Times article (unlocked):
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/18/us/west-virginia-university-budget-cuts-deficit.html?unlocked_article_code=V4QQkpjdTg5EsAVkvSkgbcYWVPz_onr-kllZtSMYfc-QQD85NmFh7VXfvJzTyj-HyZVrHXQ7CqipbvUhpczKorpxNMZ92FHyPCW82uttDMVLuvR4nRQeGV8ZxmvNCZ99lrzyWzwNIV-IsilK31KiAfmso9kd51csL_MrlJ1zJB29ORepkcwZEABUnFg0RrjXcvgQ3jNm9HyzYC4pMkCddkvIMxmNdcqx2g2WuLI_kAiGefmuLiRiYI6erWDd-c6O0nx0aW2mxGsDm37mgVWZnLaJQkLtbI0oGfKYLwihCoULMtPuQHYt6wDOlaOKPJNtgHYad9pBpHZ0BSAnrws6hgZJ4cxvfZFQZSwUFfxCjaf7&smid=url-share

#academia #humanities #languages #creativewriting #wvu

State universities have a vital responsibility & deserve to be funded and run for the good of all state residents, no matter what they choose to study. It is immoral & undemocratic for boards full of wealthy donors & expensive consulting companies to make decisions for the public.

“West Virginians, trapped in the clutches of economic hardship, find themselves mercilessly shackled to a state most can ill afford to abandon, left to suffer the full weight of the WVU administration’s harrowing decisions. We will learn only subjects aligned with the preferences of the rich, driven by their financial motivations.”
#academia #highered #latecapitalism #WVU

https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/08/west-virginia-university-cuts-programs.html

Please consider this petition:
https://chng.it/cQN9xQ6Xjh
The #WVU Department of World #Languages, Literatures, and #Linguistics is under tremendous pressure.
http://worldlang.wvu.edu/

This article pulls no punches in its description of the debacle at #WVU. In response to funding declines, public universities don't hunker down, cut unnecessary expenses and invest in retaining high quality programs. No. They swell administrative ranks and hire consultants to do their jobs for them. Then those consultants tell them to raise tuition, make massive expenditures on new buildings and cut faculty and student support. Heartbreaking. #HigherEd @academicchatter https://www.thenation.com/article/society/wvu-cuts-higher-education/

@jackiegardina

Copying OG message for @academicchatter

Here is a statement from a West Virginia Linguistics professor whose entire department has been eliminated. It provides additional context to the Provost's decision to cancel 38 majors and the tenure and untenured faculty lines associated with them.

#highered #education #tenure #WVU #academicfreedom #academic #law #lawfedi #lawprofs

https://community.wvu.edu/~jokatz/Closure/?fbclid=IwAR1BIcLhe__wEivDYWWz2UeyUHvFuiGg3T2KDtHdlS93X-_KPi2gM-YFbbI_aem_ATi1jeijVosmXwGlwcoYwc8OU1e8tXm08Y0nPDH2hdMqqHYZKNN3R8Qmr3nLw1tXKrM&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

Here is a statement from a West Virginia Linguistics professor whose entire department has been eliminated. It provides additional context to the Provost's decision to cancel 38 majors and the tenure and untenured faculty lines associated with them.

#highered #education #tenure #WVU #academicfreedom #academic #law #lawfedi #lawprofs

https://community.wvu.edu/~jokatz/Closure/?fbclid=IwAR1BIcLhe__wEivDYWWz2UeyUHvFuiGg3T2KDtHdlS93X-_KPi2gM-YFbbI_aem_ATi1jeijVosmXwGlwcoYwc8OU1e8tXm08Y0nPDH2hdMqqHYZKNN3R8Qmr3nLw1tXKrM&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

The terrible situation at #WVU is a classic illustration of what happens when you run a university like a business to deal with public cuts:

1. leadership operating on "fake it 'til you make it" hype;

2. a "perpetual growth mentality" designed to satisfy shareholders rather than serve citizens;

3. building unneeded shiny new features before cutting prices;

4. investment in things rather than in people;

5. executive decision making rather than shared governance.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/why-is-west-virginia-u-making-sweeping-cuts

West Virginia University: “The flagship university is recommending eliminating 9 percent of its majors, all the foreign language programs and 7 percent of full-time faculty members. “ Just wow! As a former Spanish teacher, this really is beyond the pale. Replace teachers with a language learning app? Really?

#LanguageInstruction #Universities
#HigherEd
#WVU https://mastodon.social/@HuShuo/110873339382594895