West Virginia University Math Department cuts met with shock and awe

Aug. 19—This story has been updated.

FAIRMONT — West Virginia University's choice to gut the math department and end its doctoral and masters programs will have a profound impact on the state's ability to compete in the high tech industry and educate its youth.

It's also left the entire department in a state of shock and disbelief, with faculty calling the proposed changes to class sizes physically impossible to accommodate.

"We're horrified, we don't know how we'll cover classes at sizes that will allow students to be successful," Cantor said, a member of the WVU math faculty. Their identity is being withheld due to a fear of retaliation from the school for speaking out. "Our graduate students go on to become teachers at other higher ed institutions in the state."

The Times West Virginian is changing the names of WVU faculty in this article due to fear of retaliation. However, University policy states otherwise.

"As our Code of Conduct states, 'WVU promotes freedom of expression and open communications. The University supports and encourages everyone to express their thoughts and concerns in a respectful manner.' We believe strongly that West Virginia University should be a place for ideas, even those we may disagree with, and we take seriously our obligation to protect and uphold the important rights granted by the First Amendment through WVU BOG Governance Rule 1.8."

The end of the graduate programs is especially bewildering for the math department, considering that it brings in over $7 million a year to the university through fellowships and other funding. It's also the only one in the state.

At a recent faculty meeting, department members discussed the university's plans for the spending cuts. The university recommended larger class sizes, more online classes and a reduction in faculty. Currently, the department has around 54 professors to teach, the university plans to reduce the number to 30. According to Euler, another math professor, this, along with the increase in class size that the university is proposing, would do more than just overburden individual professors.

"There are not enough physical locations at WVU to accommodate all of that," he said. "Unless we start building double decker desks and have students sit on top of each other or on laps, I don't know how that's going to be possible unless we convert the Coliseum or the stadium."

Euler said this also will degrade the quality of the school's math instruction. The school was already working to drive down class size. This abrupt change in course now threatens to undo the progress the school has made achieving that goal. Several studies have already shown the importance of small class size to student learning.

Online courses are also a poor alternative. Euler said the school looks at something called the drop, fail, withdraw, or DFW, rate. It's a measure of student success that tracks how many students receive an F or a D or withdraw from a course. It's a big thing the school looks at when evaluating courses. According to Euler, the DFW rate for online classes is as high as 60%. The department worked to do away with online calculus classes because of the atrocious DFW rate. Now, they're poised to return.

WVU President E. Gordon Gee was not available to comment. However, April Kaull, WVU executive director of communications, wrote in an email that the preliminary recommendation was made through a holistic, data-informed process. It states that input was taken from a variety of sources, such as unit self study reports, feedback from deans and college leadership, and an extensive review of student demand trends, financial data and instructional activity and efficiency.

Fourier, another WVU math professor, finds any mention of a holistic process laughable.

"I don't know how they can say that this was holistic in any way when two or three years were clearly affected by COVID," he said.

Much of the decision was driven by enrollment data, which saw a large drop off during the pandemic. Fourier argued that the statistic was deceptive, since 10% of all doctoral graduations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics over the last two years were math doctorates. That, combined with low enrollment during the pandemic years, created the impression the program was losing students when the opposite was true.

The department was bouncing back. On top of that, the program was also doing multiple things to safeguard its spending and bring in money. Instead, Fourier said the school ignored all of that information, using arbitrary metrics to evaluate what was best for the school.

"All of this was overlooked in favor of one line of data," he said. "From an excel spreadsheet, analyzed through a one size fits all process. There was no input from faculty, none that I'm aware of."

The loss of the school's advanced math program will not just impact students on campus, but will also have a downstream effect on various industries throughout the state.

Nurul Wahyuni Schraeder just graduated with a doctorate from the school and Davis and Elkins College recently hired her for a teaching position. She said that WVU contributed a lot of professors to Davis and Elkins, as well as other regional schools. Cantor said that WVU also provides graduates who teach math in the K-12 system. At a time when there's a nationwide teacher shortage, the state might now have to import math teachers rather than produce ones who want to stay in West Virginia to teach.

"You're not going to get many people who didn't grow up and don't have a connection to it to move here," Euler said. "What is the incentive for someone out of state come to move here when you could move to somewhere closer to New York, or Washington D.C. or a bigger city that has a lot more advantages?"

The University's plans are also counterproductive to the state's goal of moving into high tech industry and away from coal. Wahyuni Schraeder said that math is the foundation of so many other sciences, making the graduate school critical. NASA has a facility in Fairmont and the High Technology Foundation has said in the past they want to make West Virginia a powerhouse in data science and analytics.

"It seems like they're forgetting that STEM ends with M. They're forgetting the math in STEM," Euler said. "The review is completely shortchanging the whole state's ability to attract these companies if you're getting rid of the math Ph.D. program."

For now, the department plans to appeal. Whether the university decides to shortchange the state's future remains to be seen.

Reach Esteban at efernandez@timeswv.com