An Open Letter to WVU President E. Gordon Gee
A call to resign
Dear President Gee,
From the time I started collecting splinters in my backside on the wooden benches of Old Mountaineer Field in 1965, I knew I wanted to attend West Virginia University. Through the years as a diehard fan in the scorching sun, pouring rain, cold and snow, my determination to be a Mountaineer grew. I finished with an undergraduate degree in Chemistry in 1981. You signed that diploma. I stayed to get an MD in 1986.
The quality education I received is now imperiled by your actions that diminish the value of past, present, and future graduates’ diplomas, not to mention West Virginians who will now leave home to get a quality higher education elsewhere.
In slashing foreign languages, mathematics, public health and others, you have chosen a radical path forward that cannot be described as academic transformation, but rather academic deformation. This will be your legacy.
Everyone understands a ship’s captain cannot be responsible for the weather or currents. You were paid handsomely to navigate the waters, yet you ran the ship aground. To pay for your mistakes, students will lose opportunity, and faculty will lose their livelihoods. But you ensured your own lifeboat, including another two years at the helm with an honorary position in the law school afterwards. You consciously chose not to use your considerable clout to financially navigate a safer passage through the storm. You have failed as a leader at a most fundamental level, putting yourself ahead of the university, its people, and the state. Perhaps if you would have paid a bit more attention to WVU instead of collecting more for yourself, like consulting with the University of Austin, this state of affairs might have been avoided or mitigated.
Likewise, the Board of Governors has inexplicably failed in their duty to hold you accountable for the morass. You squandered the trust of many alumni like me. Why would anyone trust the resolution of this mess to a person who helped create it?
It's time for us old grads to join the young lads in calling for your resignation.
Forever a Mountaineer,
Michael Brumage
Class of 1981, Chemistry
Class of 1986, Medicine
While much of the blame lies with Gordon Gee, equal blame lies at the feet of our WV Legislature and Governor for not properly funding WVU over the years. They have not kept up with rising inflation, thereby tuition becomes too much for most West Virginia students, who consequently give up the dream of going to college.
Very nicely addresses the need for accountability. The value of language training is priceless. For a university to cut languages I’d a travesty that sets every student behind counterparts from other countries.