BY HANK REICHMAN

As higher education reels from continuing assaults on academic freedom, tenure, shared governance and education itself in states like Florida, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, we now face the possibility that another state’s major flagship institution may soon exist only as a shadow of its former self, the victim of a so-called “academic transformation,” better understood as an academic devastation. August saw the announcement that West Virginia University planned to eliminate 9 percent of its majors and 7 percent of its full-time faculty at the school’s flagship Morgantown campus. The proposed and unprecedented cuts, a veritable evisceration of some of the university’s most essential programs, including languages and mathematics, but also a variety of career-oriented programs, are the work of WVU’s president—the infamous E. Gordon Gee, who has for decades left a malodorous trail of scandal and destruction in his wake at a series of major universities—with the blind support of WVU’s supine board of governors.  (This is Gee’s second round at WVU; I hope soon to write a post about his notorious record as the very model of the destructive neoliberal university autocrat.)

Last week, the WVU faculty responded to Gee’s mismanagement by voting no-confidence in his administration by an overwhelming margin of 797 to 100. That was followed by a vote of 747 to 79 to approve a resolution calling for an “immediate freeze” to WVU’s so-called “Academic Transformation process.” Students and alumni, as well as citizen groups, have also voiced their opposition. Alas, so far Gee and his board are holding firmly to their destructive “plans” nonetheless.

This outrageous all-out assault on higher education has not gone unnoticed both throughout the higher education community and in the mass media. Inside Higher Ed published one of the first stories. Emma Pettit at the Chronicle of Higher Education has provided an essential blow-by-blow account of the no-confidence vote. On August 16, this blog ran a piece here. The New York Times covered the story, so did the Washington Post, NPR, and Forbes. Two absolutely excellent must-read pieces appeared in Slate (“Everyone at West Virginia University Knew Something Was Up. I Hate That We Were Right,” by Myya Helm) and in the Nation (“The Evisceration of a Public University,” by Lisa Corrigan).

Now we have a remarkably eloquent appeal published September 7 in the Boston Review by three faculty members at WVU—assistant professor of English Rose Casey, associate professor of history Jessica Wilkerson, and assistant professor of English Johanna Winant.  “An Open Letter from Faculty at West Virginia University” makes the case that WVU “offers a clear example of the significance of a public university: what it has been, what it risks devolving into, and what it still can become.” They describe in detail the university’s mission, the origins of the current crisis, and the potentially devastating impact of the proposed “transformation.” They “write out of concern that what happens at WVU this fall—whether these catastrophic cuts are frozen or forced through—will serve as a canary in the coal mine for the integrity and future of public education throughout the United States.”

Unfortunately, their concern is by no means unfounded. “University administrators say that it’s time to transform WVU into a more efficient university,” Professors Casey, Wilkerson, and Winant declare. “We’re not opposed to change, but we strongly object to the process to date and we object to the reduction of education to cold market logic.” They conclude with this vision:

Ultimately, we understand the public university as a space to nurture a democratizing vision of the present and the future that builds on our rich history. Faculty recognize that the public university is a space of shared decision making and robust community. Yesterday faculty convened a full assembly and passed a resolution of no confidence in both our leadership and this process by a landslide: 89 percent and 90 percent, respectively. Students, too, see WVU as their own institution and one they hold in trust for future students—and this was on full display during recent student protests. In this moment of crisis for the public university, we all see a moment of powerful opportunity: to recommit to the public university as a space of accessible, inclusive, and sustainable growth.

We thus call on the Board of Governors to engage in good faith and freeze this process, which has excluded most of WVU’s stakeholders from meaningful participation, is opposed by many students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members, and has already caused severe damage. We—the people of WVU—have been sourcing, discussing, and analyzing data together; we have been cooperating, proposing, and voting together; we have been protesting, speaking, and writing together. We now ask the Board to commit to working with students, faculty, and staff to develop a new model for the future of West Virginia University based on democratic principles of true shared governance. At this point, neither President E. Gordon Gee nor the process of so-called “academic transformation” serves the best interests of the university or the state.

There’s still time to recognize our duty to the West Virginia public that employs us and whom we serve. What’s more, we can provide an inspirational model for other university administrations: we can commit to preserving and enhancing access to the university as a public good in the fullest sense. We stand ready to do this work for the people of West Virginia today and tomorrow—work that can and should be done together.

Yes, there is still time! I urge you to read this open letter and find ways to speak out and act in support of our colleagues at WVU and the citizens of West Virginia. For the professors are right: at stake is the future of higher education itself, not only in one state, but across the country.

UPDATE: I just saw that the American Council of Learned Societies has issued a statement on the proposed WVU cuts, which calls on Gee and the board to “continue rethinking the plan and to work with the WVU faculty to provide what is good and right and equitable for WVU students and the people of West Virginia.” ACLS also calls “on WVU and other universities who may be tempted to imitate the surface pragmatism of WVU’s approach to focus their energy and resources toward renewing the great tradition of education in the liberal arts and sciences for which the United States is known around the world.” The full statement is here.

Contributing editor Hank Reichman is professor emeritus of history at California State University, East Bay; former AAUP vice-president and chair of the AAUP Foundation; and from 2012-2021 Chair of AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure. His book, The Future of Academic Freedom, based in part on posts to this blog, was published in 2019.  His Understanding Academic Freedom was published in October 2021.