Updated April 2024: I posted this text in August to help publicize what was happening at WVU. It was linked from many public letters and discussion forums. I later removed the text because I was on the job market and didn't want this to be the first thing that comes up when you google my name. I have now secured a job for next year, and am restoring the text. WVU's negligent Board of Governors has allowed the discredited Gordon Gee administration to proceed with its program of destruction. They have laid off hundreds of faculty effective next month and closed dozens of degree programs. There has been no meaningful reform of administrative payroll or spending policies, debt management and physical plant expansion, or private-public partnerships (several of which are now tied up in lawsuits in which WVU disclosed that the opaque corporate entities created to manage those partnerships have been embezzling funds from the university for over a decade). My employment here ends May 22. I consider every individual involved with the administration of WVU to be a bad actor, completely beyond the pale of all ethical and professional norms. I will never associate with this institution again, and I do not recognize it as a legitimate university. End upate

My name is Jonah Katz; I'm an associate professor of linguistics at West Virginia University. I work in a large department that includes all of the world languages and literatures at WVU in addition to its 'basic' and applied linguistics programs. On August 10, 2023, the WVU provost recommended dissolving our department and all of its academic programs and faculty lines, including the only Linguistics programs in the state of West Virginia (our MA and undergrad minor). All of the tenured and untenured faculty in the department are to be laid off, including the linguistics faculty. All of the foreign language and literature programs at the university are to be discontinued; the president of the university publicly stated that foreign-language classes will be replaced with online apps or remote classes at other universities. I'm asking linguists to help us publicize what's happened here and advocate on our behalf.

We are a very small program (4 faculty in basic linguistics and 4-5 more in applied linguistics/TESOL), but punch well above our weight in both research output and external grant funding. In fact, on the same day WVU wrote to tell us our department is cancelled and we are fired, they ran a front-page article on the university website celebrating the NSF grant that Sergio Robles-Puente and I recently received, and lauding our innovative research and intensive student mentoring. That grant will now need to be discontinued or moved to another institution. WVU linguists more generally have served thousands of students here over decades. They have helped document and preserve the unique linguistic heritage of the region, from ethnographic studies on Appalachian English in public-school classrooms to the only existing work documenting the Spanish spoken in West Virginia. They have helped train generations of public-school foreign-language and English teachers in a state facing a dire shortage of K-12 educators. And they have served as one of the few connections between West Virginia students and the larger world, from study-abroad programs to scientific training that has prepared students for graduate study at some of the most prestigious institutions in the United States and beyond.

The reason given for this egregious violation of ethical and professional norms is that the university faces a dire budget crisis, and the administration has no choice but to cut academic programs in order to close their structural budget deficit. But the administration's own financial data, gathered at great cost with external consultants and publicly posted here, clearly indicate that the department as a whole (p. 7) has generated operating profits of more than $800,000 in each of the last three years, even without counting our grant income, which is substantial (our NSF project is just one of several large external grants that faculty in our department have been awarded in the past several years). This is not a financial decision: it is an ideological one, as our president's public comments make clear.

The story of how the university got into such a catastrophic financial position to begin with is a long and complex one, and tangential to my message here. But for those interested, this exposé in the Chronicle of Higher Education (unfortunately paywalled for many readers) and this anonymous report by WVU faculty demonstrate convincingly that skyrocketing administrative personnel costs and excessive debt associated with a failed growth strategy are two of the major drivers (declining enrollment, COVID, and inadequate state funding also played a role).

To be honest, I don't know if anything that we can do will help the situation. The leadership of the university has made up its mind, they have the backing of state politicians and the board they appointed to oversee the university, and they will not be swayed by appeals to reason or ideals. What they may respond to is public pressure, and to that end I am asking my colleagues to share what is happening here as widely as you can through all available media and professional networks. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and we need a whole lot of disinfectant at my institution. You could also consider writing to the people who made these decisions and their enablers, and if you represent an organization like a department or institute, consider doing so publicly in an open letter. Let them know what you think of the decision to eliminate all foreign language, literature, and linguistics classes at a public land-grant state flagship, and to fire all faculty regardless of merit, longevity, or tenure. Let them know how this will affect the reputation of West Virginia University and the state that it represents. Let them know how it will affect young people's prospects and their choices in one of the poorest and least-educated states in the country, where huge numbers of our most talented and driven young people are already leaving to seek better educational and professional opportunities. Thank you for your time, and to my many wonderful colleagues who have reached out this week to ask how you can help. I am lucky beyond belief to work in such a supportive, principled, and collaborative field, and to have so many amazing mentors and colleagues. Linguists really are the best.