Statement in support of WVU faculty

The Ohio University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (OU-AAUP) expresses grave concern for West Virginia University’s (WVU) proposal to slash nine percent of its majors and 16 percent of its faculty. We stand with the WVU faculty in their opposition to these planned cuts, which, if enacted, will undermine the university’s ability to carry out its core mission. The proposed cuts will eliminate the entire Department of World Languages, Literatures and Linguistics and weaken multiple other programs across the curriculum. At no point has the WVU upper administration consulted the faculty—a failure reflecting utter disregard for the principles of shared governance as established by the national AAUP. At no point did WVU declare financial exigency, a step that should have triggered a deliberate process centrally involving faculty in decisions about program elimination. The involvement of faculty helps ensure that program closures adhere to an emphasis on maintaining core programs. Eliminating language instruction entirely from an R1 institution hardly seems consistent with a concern for sustaining educational programs necessary to any university worthy of the name. Instead, the cuts appear driven by arbitrary determinations of relative student demand rather than by the necessity to preserve the university’s academic integrity. WVU’s students and faculty deserve better from their institutional leaders. West Virginians deserve better.