West Virginia University has announced a preliminary plan to cut 7% of its faculty and 9% of its majors: Among the programs recommended for discontinuance, World Languages including all 32 faculty positions. WVU is also recommending the elimination of several programs in the College of Creative Arts, graduate programs in higher education administration and special
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West Virginia University has announced a preliminary plan to cut 7% of its faculty and 9% of its majors:
Among the programs recommended for discontinuance, World Languages including all 32 faculty positions. WVU is also recommending the elimination of several programs in the College of Creative Arts, graduate programs in higher education administration and special education.
On twitter there is a lot of bemoaning about the importance of languages but the students are voting with their feet. Indeed, most of these programs are only sustained by foreign language requirements which are increasingly otiose in a world with ubiquitous instant translation. The students are correct, the value of learning a second language has fallen.
Where the ax should fall may be debatable but the ax must fall somewhere because of demographics. College enrollment peaked in 2010 and has since fallen by 15%. What’s going on in WV is thus a reflection of national trends, magnified by West Virginia’s own decline in population. Full paying foreign students from China are also way down. Now add to declining college demographics, budgets hit by the great recession and then the pandemic. Now add in the rise of online learning which means that universities can outsource low-demand classes to other universities and save money and quite likely increase quality. (Indeed, the local teacher might have been teaching online anyway so why not substitute with a world expert and great teacher who has the backing of an entire team of delivery experts?) Finally, add in the fact that a substantial part of the electorate would like to see a decline in programs they see as politicized.
Put it all together and the only surprise is how long it has taken for the ax to fall. You can be sure, however, that there is more chopping to be done.
The post The WV Canary in the Coal Mine appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.
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