West Virginia
West Virginia University wants to cut 32 majors because enrollment is down 10% and it’s got a $45 million hole in its budget
Hundreds of West Virginia University students wearing red T-shirts and bandanas to symbolize their connection to striking coal miners a century ago staged protests Monday against an administration proposal to cut 9% of majors amid a $45 million budget shortfall.
Yelling “stop the cuts” with the crowd outside the school’s student union in Morgantown, second-year creative writing masters student Kelly Ward called the plan to eliminate the world languages and dozens of other programs at the state’s flagship university “absurd” and “asinine.”
“For me, the elimination of these programs simply means that they are trying to continue with the erasure of Appalachian voices and Appalachian stories,” she said, holding a sign reading “Writers Don’t Forget.”
Ward said the school’s administration is just proving to West Virginia natives and Appalachian people that “money is worth more than their stories.”
“That is what has been the rhetoric for many, many, many years now, so it’s very, very frustrating to see this,” she said. ”I don’t think I can even fully put it into words.”
Earlier this month, the university recommended eliminating 32 majors and 7% of the total faculty in Morgantown, the latter part of $7 million in proposed staffing cuts. The university said the proposed program cuts would represent a total of 434 students, or 2% of total enrollment. Critics have said that figure should be higher because it only counted students whose first major is in one of the affected programs.
“I know this has been an incredibly stressful time for our campus,” Maryanne Reed, university provost and vice president of academic affairs, said during a Faculty Senate Executive Committee meeting later Monday. “I just think that emotions are very high right now. These are serious decisions that we are considering.”
President E. Gordon Gee and other top university officials have said the budget shortfall is largely the result of enrollment declines. The student population at West Virginia University has dropped 10% since 2015.
Gee, who has said he will step down when his contract expires in 2025, told the Faculty Senate that changes to the university were coming regardless of the deficit.
“In 2020 I said that we needed to make these in order to be a competitive university on the national stage,” Gee said.
The move comes after West Virginia saw the greatest population drop of any state in the U.S. from 2010 to 2020. It’s the only state that now has fewer residents than it did in 1950.
The West Virginia United Students’ Union organized separate rallies on campus. Organizers said they want to halt the university’s planned reductions, seek an independent audit of its finances and reduce WVU’s administrative spending. They also called for increased spending by the state in higher education, among other things.
Students were encouraged to wear red in honor of the red bandanas West Virginia coal miners fighting to unionize wore during their march on Blair Mountain, the largest armed uprising in the United States since the Civil War.
Wearing a bandana around her neck, Mai-lyn Sadler of Lincoln County said young people need leaders providing more opportunities in the state instead of “actively canceling them.”
“I think it’s just devaluing, and committing to the brain drain we’re already seeing — it’s ridiculous,” said Sadler, a dual major in political science and philosophy with a minor in women and gender studies. “Kids are stuck in these rural communities as it is and a lot of us are looking at either the military or college to get us out of here and let us learn something new.”
Jennifer Lawrence, a local dance studio owner who graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in French from WVU, said she’s deeply concerned about West Virginia students losing access to liberal arts in publicly-funded education — something already “hard to come by” in the state.
“For me, it’s really that this is going to happen on the national level, and we’re just the frontline of it,” she said.
The university cited low interest in targeting the Department of World Languages, Literature and Linguistics for elimination. That includes bachelor’s degrees in French and Spanish along with Chinese, German and Russian studies, and master’s programs in linguistics and teaching English to speakers of other languages.
Professor Lisa Di Bartolomeo, who coordinates the Russian studies and Slavic and East European studies programs, has urged others to pepper the university with pleas to continue all of the language programs. The long-term implications for students from the state of West Virginia could be drastic, she said.
“I don’t see how it avoids pushing people out of state, and I think the impact on West Virginia students happens from top to bottom,” she said Monday. “I think what’s going to happen is going to exacerbate the already existing brain-drain that West Virginia has experienced for decades. Young people see fewer and fewer options for their futures in the state of West Virginia.”
The WVU Board of Governors is scheduled to make final recommendations Sept. 15. Staff and faculty reduction letters will be sent in mid-October.
Anna Schles, who grew up in Charleston and graduated from the university’s creative writing masters program in May, said the cuts are a “devaluing of a liberal arts education.”
“I think there’s a rising tide of anti-intellectualism in this country, and it’s really hard to see because there’s nothing wrong with being educated and learning things,” she said. “It’s going to make people more isolated and live poorer lives and I think the cruelty is some of the point here.”
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Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia.
West Virginia
Community Care of West Virginia receives $500,000 from Biden-Harris Administration to expand hours of operation
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), recently announced a $60 million investment in 125 HRSA-funded community health centers that serve nearly 4.2 million people to expand their hours of operation to improve access to health care services.
Community Care of West Virginia received $500,000 in funding.
Health centers receiving this new funding will add an additional 20 hours of operation a week on average to support the critical clinical and administrative staff necessary to add early morning (before work), night and weekend hours.
Since health centers see patients regardless of their ability to pay, this expansion of operating hours will be particularly critical for people who are uninsured, underinsured, or have Medicaid coverage and struggle to find affordable care outside of traditional business hours and cannot afford expensive visits to urgent care, retail clinics or emergency departments. This funding will also help health center patients with common challenges in accessing health care such as taking a child to the doctor after work or getting a timely appointment when not feeling well on the weekend. It will help connect patients to preventive services and resources for health-related social needs to improve health outcomes. Many patients currently forgo care altogether in these circumstances, putting their health at greater risk and leading to more expensive visits to emergency departments when conditions get more serious.
“No one should have to delay or skip a trip to the doctor because of work or school. The millions of Americans who can’t miss their daytime work shift, whose kids are in school, who have limited child care, or who face transportation challenges deserve the same access to quality care,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “These investments will help to extend operating hours, especially for patients in rural or underserved communities nationwide. I’m proud to be part of an Administration that leaves nobody behind.”
“Today’s action is another example of the Biden-Harris Administration taking action to address the challenges families face in getting health care services,” said HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson. “Having the option to get to the doctor before or after work or on the weekend not only helps families get the care they need, but it also helps relieve some of the stress and burden on families trying to arrange care. HRSA’s investment is expanding access to care in a way that recognizes the day-to-day realities of working families across the country.”
HRSA-supported health centers provide access to primary care services — regardless of an individual’s ability to pay — for over 31 million patients at more than 15,000 service sites in high need communities. More than 90 percent of health center patients have incomes below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.
For a list of the awardees, visit: https://bphc.hrsa.gov/funding/funding-opportunities/expanded-hours/fy-25-awards
To find a health center, visit: https://findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov
The West Virginia Mountaineers (13-3, 3-2) host the Colorado Buffaloes (12-4, 3-2) for game two of the season series and the second ever meeting between the two schools.
West Virginia vs. Colorado Series History
Colorado leads 1-0
Last Meeting: Colorado 65, West Virginia 60 (Dec. 21, 2024, Boulder, CO)
Last Meeting: OSU 68, No. 24 WVU 61 (Feb. 27, 2024, Stillwater, OK)
When: Wednesday, January 15
Location: Morgantown, West Virginia, WVU Coliseum (14,000)
Tip-off: 7:00 p.m. EST
Stream: ESPN+
Announcers: Nick Farrell and Meg Bulger
Radio: Andrew Caridi (PBP) Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College(Radio affiliates)
WVU Game Notes
– Frida Forman paces Colorado’s scoring production, averaging 13.9 points per game, while two more Buffs average double figures in Lior Garzon (11.5) and Jade Masogayo (12.6). Sara Smith leads with 6.3 rebounds per game and Kindyll Wetta leads the team with 6.1 assists and 1.9 steals.
– Colorado’s two losses in league play come on the road to then No. 11 TCU and RV Baylor and both came by double digits. CU adds two more league wins, defeating UCF and Kansas at home in their last two contests.
– Senior guard JJ Quinerly (18.3), junior guard Jordan Harrison (14.2) and junior guard Sydney Shaw (12.5) pace the Mountaineers scoring production this season. Harrison’s 5.1 assists per game leads WVU and ranks 8th in the Big 12. Senior guard Kyah Watson has grabbed 7.6 rebounds per game which ranks sixth in the Big 12 while her 3.1 steals per game ranks second and Quinerly’s 3.2 steals per game is first.
– The Big 12’s leaders in steals last season, Watson (50), Quinerly (38) and Harrison (31), are at it again this season averaging over two steals per contest. Junior guard Sydney Shaw and Senior guard Sydney Woodley have also gotten in on the action with 32 and 29 steals this season, giving WVU five players with 29+ steals through 16 games.
– The Mountaineers have forced 15+ turnovers in every game this season, including 20+ in 13 games to average 25.7 per game. The mark ranks fifth in the nation. The Mountaineers have forced 30-plus turnovers in five games, including a season-high 44. WVU ranks second in the nation with 14.8 steals per game and holds a +9.5 turnover margin.
– West Virginia is averaging 80.3 points per game while outscoring their opponents by an average of 28.4 points.
– Quinerly currently sits 11th in points at 1,638, and behind WVU Hall of Famer Liz Repella (2008-11) with 1,641. She also ranks 4th in steals with 279 and is just another Hall of Famer in Rosemary Kosiorek (1989-92) with 293.
West Virginia still has some work to do in terms of replenishing the offensive line room, and over the weekend, they hosted former Princeton offensive tackle Will Reed for an official visit.
“Coach Bicknell and Coach Dressler were awesome,” Reed told West Virginia On SI. “Coach Bicknell’s experience in the NFL is really impressive, not to mention his college experience. The facilities were some of the best I have seen on any visit. Probably the best. It seems like they are bringing in a lot of talent and want to turn things around quickly. It has given me a lot to think about over the next week or two.”
Reed is also considering Georgia Tech, Nebraska, and Virginia but has also received interest from Arizona, Arizona State, Memphis, Pitt, Stanford, UNLV, and Wake Forest.
Coming out of Eastside Catholic High School as a highly-rated three-star prospect in Sammamish, Washington, Reed originally committed to Cal. He decided to flip his commitment to Princeton, choosing the Ivy League route over offers from Air Force, Army, Colorado, Duke, Hawai’i, Kansas, Michigan, Michigan State, San Diego State, Tennessee, UNLV, Utah, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Washington State, and a few others.
He will have one year of eligibility remaining. A decision is expected to be made within the next two weeks.
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