December 27th, 2024 by WCBC Radio

Amid plummeting enrollment and financial crises, West Virginia is at the top of a nationwide trend of rural universities eliminating programs and majors. West Virginia University announced last fall that it’s slashing 28 undergraduate and graduate programs, including foreign languages and mathematics. Jon Marcus with the Hechinger Education report says cuts worsen barriers for rural communities and small towns trying to diversify their economies beyond agriculture or mining…

   

"There's a lot of potential to bring in new industries and new kinds of technologies and businesses and entrepreneurship, but many of those do require some kind of a college education, and that's just not as much available anymore."