Students Protest Proposed Cuts at West Virginia University
“staged a walkout Monday to protest the proposed elimination of academic programs and show support for faculty and staff”
West Virginia University is in financial trouble. They cannot protest their way out of this problem.
FOX News reports:
Students protest West Virginia University’s proposal to cut academic programs, faculty
West Virginia University students staged a walkout Monday to protest the proposed elimination of academic programs and show support for faculty and staff whose jobs are being targeted as the university addresses a $45 million budget shortfall.
Separate midday rallies were organized by the West Virginia United Students’ Union, which encouraged protesters to wear red.
Organizers said they want to halt the university’s planned reductions, seek an independent audit of its finances and reduced WVU’s administrative spending. They’re also calling for increased spending by the state in higher education, among other things.
Earlier this month, the university recommended the elimination of 9% of the majors and 7% of the total faculty in Morgantown. While the university said the proposed cuts would represent a total of 434 students, or 2% of its 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.
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 DiBartolomeo, 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.”
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Comments
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” Margaret Thatcher
I’m heading down to the bank later today to protest my balance. It needs to be higher.
Heh.
Bold move! I salute you. I’m going to the gas station and fill up my pickup then slap a $10 on the counter and declare gas is too high, this is all you get
Hee!
My balance has been way off since they started me on abut-seizure meds…
Those seem like non-styrofoam tracks. Are they sacrificing them while retaining the styrofoam?
It’s a shame about those language programs
On the other hand, my understanding is that College does not lend itself to learning languages.
The State Department and the Military regularly train their people in foreign languages. Look at their websites — what you see is that they consider it basically a full-time endeavor , consisting of a few hours of daily face-to-face instruction in small groups. And a few hours in the afternoon on the computer with headphones practicing/rehearsing.
Take a look. These people know what they’re doing:
https://www.state.gov/foreign-language-training/
https://www.dliflc.edu/
They are bloated majors. They don’t teach language but for 50% of the curriculum. The other half they try to mix in culture and a bunch of activist studies crap to fill the major out with more credits. It’s a scam.
Yes, it would be drastic and push all those Slavic speakers out of WV if Russian interpreters were not at the ready.
Where are the cuts to DEI Offices and Administration? Did I miss that?
Sure, the lack of Slavic language classes is going to drive people out of West Virginia–and by the way, they don’t have the money for the diversity basket weaving classes and similar classes