Posted on 08/12/2023 6:19:32 PM PDT by CFW
Our low birth rate is finally catching up to us. And fewer international students (especially from places from China)
American men are looking for trades so they're going to vocational school instead. There's a huge shortage in the trades plus the traditional college is woke and feminist so that's another reason you see fewer male students.
Different levels of math. I’d question if graduate level math is taught in high schools.
Sorry to see math cut for M.S. degrees.
I sympathize with the job losses but the schools have to do what’s necessary to remain competitive. I’m surprised and appalled at the salary of the university president.
Exactly. Looks like they are keeping the diversity bureaucracy.
Re: 40 - Yes, it calls into question their commitment to research in the hard sciences.
“And fewer international students (especially from places from China)”
The loss of international students hit universities hard. For they pay full cost with no argument. It was one of those “unintended” consequences of the left’s strict Covid lockdowns. Suddenly foreign students could not travel to America for college and pay that full cost and it hit the bottom line of every university in the nation.
Now many students no longer want to come to the States to study. Foreign parents do not want their children to return home “woke”. They want them to return home highly educated with a professional degree.
Math profs cut likely to be few to none. Professors who teach grad classes do teach undergrad classes! There’s smoke and mirror savings in not having to give tuition waivers to grad students. Remember it’s not likely you have 200 math grad students! Mathematics graduate education is the least expensive of graduate STEM education.
Likely math was sacrificed so it didn’t look like they were only picking on the non-STEM fields.
But they’re cutting the wrong things.
I’d probably study abroad too today, if I had the chance.
Re: 86 - it’s often more. My Japanese stepdaughter’s tuition was slightly less than double the tuition for an in-state student. Well worth it and she gladly paid.
Spoken like a true moron!
“Foreign parents do not want their children to return home “woke”. They want them to return home highly educated with a professional degree.”
Excellent post—and one good reason why the university should be eliminating the woke and stupid garbage and bulking up on math and hard science related fields.
The Gee administration at WVU (as was done elsewhere at other state higher Ed institutions!) exponentially exploded the number of administrative positions. Of those many are 6 figure “make work” positions for “strap hangers” of WVU politicians stretching all the way back to Byrd. These positions usually have titles prefaced with “Vice President for ....”. None of them cut! A previous governor’s chief of staff has one!
Burning couches now in Morgantown will land you in jail with a hefty fine.
Obviously, you’ve never been there! So, you stupidly echo something off a vlog.
Because it's not the certification path to those ridiculous six-figure pubrik skrewel administration jerbs, which are often dispensed from no-name online factories. They ought to just pivot to providing that.
Decades ago a coworker decided to replace a burned out florescent bulb over his desk. The union maintenance guy came over afterward and told him, "You're taking food out of my kid's mouth!" . My friend replied, "Your kid's too fat anyway."
He got written up but it was worth it.
These STEM programs are at risk & up for review.
1. MS Computer Science
2. MS Genetics and Developmental Biology
3. MS Mining Engineering
4. MS Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering
5. MS Nutritional and Food Sciences
6. PhD Animal and Food Science
7. PhD Computer Engineering
8. PhD Computer Science
9. PhD Electrical Engineering
10. PhD Genetics and Developmental Biology
11. PhD Mining Engineering
12. PhD Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering
Items 3, 4, 11 & 12 not long ago were flagship programs!
I imagine they are potentially on the cutting board due to pressure from the energy policies of the Biden administration.
That they are!
“Teaching requires a LOT more time put in than just the class room time. If you are a good teacher, that is.”
I am fully aware of the time commitment having worked as an adjunct instructor at a university after retirement. My first year teaching I spent 10-20 hours preparing for classes for every hour in the classroom. From my observation the tenured professors and university administration got more value for the dollar spent from the adjuncts, most of whom brought decades of real world experience and perspective to their instruction, and were very poorly paid. Most, including myself, received significant intangible pay in hopefully conveying knowledge to a new generation that might help them in their careers.
I took on the work to serve the future generation, not to make money. In fact I gave my adjunct salary to charity. Many of the long term tenured faculty, particularly the big name professors, only taught one or two classes and usually regurgitated the lectures they had been giving for years. They relied on graduate teaching assistants to hold office hours with students.
At many universities the number of books published and research grants secured count for much more in evaluating professors than excellent teaching. This goes back at least as far as my college and grad school days in the 1970’s. In some classes I had enthusiast and passionate young assistant professors who were outstanding teachers but ultimately did not earn tenure because they didn’t publish enough or were not adroit in navigating the internal politics at the university. I also had a few classes with big name professors who clearly no longer had a passion for teaching and simply showed up for class, recited a lecture given many times before, and departed at the end, leaving the graduate assistants to answer student questions.
Private universities, particularly if they take no federal money (ha ha) should be able to do whatever they want to do. From my perspective, taxpayer funded state universities should prioritize outstanding teaching over research and publishing. I would even favor ending tenure at public universities. In some subjects the quality of teaching might actually be enhanced by having non PhD adjunct faculty teaching certain classes. For example, would you learn more in a corporate strategy course from a PhD who has never worked outside of academia or a retired CEO or COO who is passionate about his career? Would an engineering course taught by a licensed engineer with 35 years of real world experience, who is also an outstanding teacher, be of more value to the students than the same class taught by a bored tenured PhD who prefers research to classroom instruction?
The education system in this country is failing at all levels - primary, secondary, college, and post graduate. It is time for an honest assessment of the problem and new solutions. The cost of a university education has risen to obscene levels and the quality of that education is greatly diminished. A good start for our country would be returning to fundamentals and declare the primary purpose of universities to be great teaching as opposed to other activities.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.