Culture Wars/Current Controversies

The Evisceration of a Public University

Nation Weekly
August 18, 2023
Last week, West Virginia University announced a plan to raze some of its core academic programs: 32 majors, all of its foreign language programs, and 16 percent of its full-time faculty members.

In a devastating story about the state of academia—which major news outlets have failed to adequately address—Lisa Corrigan, professor of communication and director of gender studies at the University of Arkansas, explains how the state of affairs at WVU is indicative of a larger trend toward trimming federal funding for higher education, metastasizing privatization programs, and censoring liberal education, particularly in the South.

EDITOR’S PICK
The Evisceration of a Public University
West Virginia University is being gutted, and it’s a preview for what’s in store for higher education.
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