A West Virginia University Faculty Senate meeting Monday laid bare significant cuts to be sustained by WVU’s libraries amid a university-wide restructuring.
WVU Libraries Dean Karen Diaz reported a net loss of 11 positions constituting a 10%-plus reduction in staff after the administration asked the unit to reduce its personnel budget by $800,000.
The reduction follows a $1.2 million Libraries budget cut at the beginning of the fiscal year that resulted in a $740,000 reduction in the unit’s collections budget, with another $460,000 personnel budget cut managed through vacancies and attrition, Diaz said.
Diaz said Libraries rolled out a restructuring plan last month to be implemented starting July 1.
Over 400 databases, journals, eBooks canceled
As of Dec. 31, Libraries canceled 41 research databases, 351 journal titles and 13 eBooks, Diaz said, adding that some canceled journal titles may still be available through an aggregator.
Libraries’ evaluation of purchases and subscriptions to scholarly and classroom information resources began in late spring 2023 to reduce the fiscal year 2024 budget separate from the university-wide restructuring process that included the $800,000 personnel budget slashing.
Databases cut for fiscal year 2024 include:
Monthly Catalog of US Government Publications 1895-1976.
Agricultural & Environmental Science.
Engineering Case Studies Online.
Oxford English Dictionary.
New York Times (ProQuest Historical Newspapers).
Biological Science Database.
Canceled eBooks include:
Oxford Reference collection.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press open access eBook collection.
Advances in Chemical Engineering.
Advances in the Study of Behavior.
Diaz noted that interlibrary loan services are available to acquire any materials not available through subscription and that no libraries are closing. No changes would be apparent at WVU’s downtown, Evansdale and Health Sciences libraries, Diaz predicted.
WVU library spending lags behind Big 12 peers
Diaz reported WVU Libraries expenses of $14.5 million were just over 72% of the $20.1 million median of Big 12 Conference peer schools according to a review of 2021 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System figures.
Diaz prefaced the Big 12 peer school spending comparison by saying some faculty had asked where unit reductions had left it compared with peers.
Diaz said the unit is adopting a new budget model in which access services and research services units in each of the three libraries would be centralized administratively while still doing the work they do now. Additional tenants in library spaces are being considered, Diaz said.
Access services personnel check out materials and assist at desks, manage digital and print course reserves and perform interlibrary loan work, Diaz said.
WVU’s assertion that students and faculty won’t see a disruption in support services provided by the Libraries unit or a reduction in materials due to the restructuring has drawn skepticism.
WVU Provost Maryanne Reed noted at Monday’s Faculty Senate meeting that the recent resignation of WVU Potomac State College President Chris Gilmer effective March 15 was his decision.
Reed said Gilmer, who was named president in January 2023 after serving in that role in an interim capacity since April 2022, was returning to Mississippi to pursue other opportunities after having served as an administrator and faculty member at that state’s Alcorn State University.
WVU on Wednesday announced Vice Provost Paul Kreider was named interim president at Potomac State effective March 16. WVU said a timeline and process for a permanent campus president search would be shared at a future date.
Gilmer’s resignation followed an October vote of no confidence by Potomac State’s Faculty Assembly in a 31-1 tally in Gilmer’s senior advisor and chief of staff Brady Whipkey. The resolution found Whipkey had failed “to act as a liaison between the president and the campus community†and didn’t act on faculty proposals regarding academic advising and workload equity.
WVU defended Whipkey in a statement provided by Christine Hess, interim executive director of Potomac State College university relations and enrollment management.
The statement said an investigation revealed no findings of sexual misconduct, harassment or assault by Whipkey or any false or misleading statements regarding his credentials.
The statement also noted Kreider said during a campus meeting following the probe that the Potomac State campus would be successful “[i]f we collectively begin to focus on our students and our community.â€
Reed said Monday since WVU’s regional campuses had asked for a delay in their program portfolio review process as part of WVU’s university-wide restructuring, their self-studies would be due March 22. WVU administration preliminary recommendations are slated for April 12, with final recommendations slated for presentation to the Board of Governors at its June board meeting.
Any personnel cuts won’t take place until the fall, Reed said.
WVU’s “Academic Transformation†restructuring included 28 program and 143 faculty cuts approved in September. 2023 saw WVU administrators approve roughly 300 cuts to faculty and staff, drawing the ire of many in the university community who say President Gordon Gee’s administration has spent too much on itself while short-changing students and faculty.
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