MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — The West Virginia University Board of Governors Friday morning voted to accept the majority of the proposed cuts that are part of the next phase of its “academic transformation.”

Two late amendments added two faculty members back to the College of Creative Arts and two to the Department of World Languages, which had previously been recommended for complete elimination.

The decision comes in spite of ongoing student and faculty protests and two votes by the WVU Faculty Assembly to freeze the academic transformation. As the BOG met Friday, student protests continued, with students chanting “Stop the cuts!” and holding signs, some saying “VOTE for ME VOTE to FREEZE.”

The group eventually left the room and regrouped outside of the Erickson Alumni Center.

On Sept. 5, WVU announced that the following majors will still be eliminated or merged with other programs:

  • MLS Legal Studies
  • MPA Public Administration
  • PhD in Natural Resource Economics
  • MS Energy Environments
  • BS Agribusiness Management
  • BS Environmental and Energy Resource Management 
  • BS Environmental and Natural Resource Economics

It announced that the following programs that the university originally planned to cut are now set to continue:

Although all degree programs in foreign languages are still recommended to be cut, after protests and rallies from the campus community, the university’s recommendation now keeps on-campus courses in Spanish and Chinese.

A full list of recommendations is available on the Provost’s website.

12 News will continue to provide updates on this developing story.