I wouldn’t call myself a public higher education reporter specifically. My beat is state government, so I tend to cover higher education policy in the state from that mindset.

Public colleges, universities, and community/technical colleges are very strange bodies for me to cover. In a way, they are public/private hybrids. Direct state funding only makes up a small portion of their budgets, which rely mostly on tuition from students.

But taxpayers are more involved with the state’s public higher education system than they might realize. Nearly all are regulated by the state Higher Education Policy Commission (only West Virginia University, Marshall University, and Fairmont State University are exempt). The governor appoints members of the boards of governors for public colleges/universities with the advice and consent of the state Senate.

And even though state funding is but a small portion of the budgets of public colleges and universities, your state and federal tax dollars play other roles. Faculty and staff of public colleges and universities are considered state employees. The state signs their paychecks. They receive health care through the Public Employees Insurance Agency.

Many students are funded through federal Pell grants and Stafford loans. And Congress distributes millions in various federal research grants and other funds to public colleges and universities. Point being, more of your taxpayer dollars are involved in our state’s public higher education system than you might think.

I bring all of this up because I’ve noticed a curiosity. I’ve been covering the now-approved program and faculty cuts at West Virginia University off and on all summer. It’s hard for me to cover every aspect of it given my beat and the number of things I cover. But I’ve heard the concerns of professors, students, and even some WVU alumni. But I’ve yet to hear any concerns of parents or the public at large regarding the program cuts.

I know parents are not always involved in their now-adult offspring’s post-high school education, but many are. And many help bear the burden of paying for college if financially able to do so on top of the students receiving grants, scholarships, and loans. I’d expect to see parents fired up one way or another regarding WVU’s program cuts.

Or what about the public? Sure, I’ve seen plenty fired up on social media, but those loudest on social media don’t necessarily reflect overall public sentiment. Walking out amongst the real world outside of social media or those I know in the political world, I hear no real outrage or concern about these cuts.

Maybe it’s due to West Virginians as a whole not having a high college-going rate. According to the U.S. Census, the percentage of West Virginians between 2017 and 2022 with a bachelor’s degree or higher was 21.8%. It makes sense then that you’re not seeing outrage at WVU on the streets.

But even despite the loudest voices I’ve heard from students and faculty at WVU opposing the cuts, I’ve been surprised by how small that number is compared to the total number of students and faculty at WVU. Sure, the WVU University Assembly — consisting of full-time faculty — voted 797-100 last week in favor of a resolution of no confidence in WVU President E. Gordon Gee.

This seems like a large number, except that there are more than 2,400 full-time faculty at WVU. Those voting for no confidence in Gee represent maybe about 32% of full-time faculty. And while there are plenty of students protesting and speaking out, keep in mind there are more than 18,000 students on the Morgantown campus alone this semester.

I don’t mention all of that to diminish those who have expressed their outrage. If anything, I mention it because I’m a touch surprised that there isn’t more outrage. I’m also not saying you should be outraged or care. That is on you. But considering so much of our taxpayer dollars are involved with WVU and other public higher education institutions in the state, I guess I at least expected more interest.

I’ve written in this space before about my concerns about lack of interest from the public over our K-12 student proficiency numbers for English, reading, writing, and math. New numbers came out last week showing that while numbers are improving, they are still below pre-pandemic levels. And pre-pandemic levels were not good either.

Instead, I’ve seen more outrage about a new law allowing students the ability to transfer schools one time without having to sit out of high school sports for one year. Allegedly this has caused some high school athletic programs to shrink, and others to grow and start running up scoreboards. It seems to me this law has exacerbated a problem that was already happening, as plenty of high schools ran up their scoreboards for football last year too prior to this law’s existence.

I can easily imagine the same people who appear to not be paying attention to WVU’s program cuts probably have many opinions on WVU’s basketball and football programs. I just wish we, the public, cared as much about our educational institutions as we do high school and college sports.