West Virginia University is about to cut majors and trim its faculty – and other schools could soon follow

Last week, West Virginia University announced its intention to trim staff and cut some of the majors it offers, in a bid to plug its $45 million budget deficit.

The moves – which are currently open for appeal before being voted on in mid-September – would result in the university laying off 7% of its faculty, or 169 people, as well as the discontinuation of 32 of the university’s 338 majors. The eliminated majors, including all world language-related disciplines, would impact an estimated 434 students, or ~2% of WV’s student body.

🤔 How did we get here?... School officials attribute WV’s existing budget deficit – which is projected to grow to $78 million by 2028 without any major changes – to declining enrollment and higher employee costs.

• Between fall 2013 and fall 2022, West Virginia’s Morgantown campus lost ~16% of its student body population, from 29,466 students to 24,741. A majority of the university’s revenue is derived from tuition payments.
• In addition, WV learned this spring that an increase in insurance premiums for public employees would inflate university costs by $10 million.

🎓✂️ Zoom out: Other universities are also dealing with enrollment/cost issues, and could opt to make similar cuts. Penn State and Rutgers, for example, are both staring down deficits north of $60 million this year, even after measures like increasing tuition and cutting costs.