West Virginia lawmakers are facing, what looks like, an expensive failure with the opening of the “anti-woke” Washington Center for Civics, Culture and Statesmanship at West Virginia University, which had enrolled only one student as of June 22. State representatives are voicing their opposing viewpoints regarding the $3 million program designed to “facilitate studies of the U.S. Constitution and the ‘great debates of Western civilization.’”
Eighteen classes were created to address a perceived “crisis” of “wokeness” in America around the growing awareness of social injustices toward marginalized communities and acceptance of progressive ideologies. Class titles include “The New Right,” “Woke,” and “Nation and Migration.”
House Bill 3297, which was approved by West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey April 30, 2025, was the foundation of the center with a goal to instruct students on the “classical Western history and culture and American constitutional thought.”
West Virginia House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, the bill’s co-sponsor, explained the low enrollment numbers were expected due to the courses not being accredited “There’s a process by which those courses get approved and integrated into the academic structure to officially become part of a major … I think what we have here is an administrative process where the program just isn’t stood up yet,” he told the West Virginia Gazette.
Delegate John Williams, a Democrat and a WVU alum, decried the large sum of funding allocated for the center with such dismal attendance.
Dr. Patrick Lee Miller, the center’s director, will get an annual salary of more than $300,000 to create the center’s core curriculum and educate students in philosophy, economic thought, constitutional governance, and self-government. Miller is also expected to host debates, lectures, as well as invite speakers who align with the purpose of the anti-woke center. His contract is from January 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027.
The use of funding also comes under question following the 2024 decision to axe 28 academic programs and terminate over 300 positions for WVU’s “Academic Transformation” program. The goal of the changes was to streamline and examine programs, “diversifying offerings to improve student success and retention.”
Similar efforts are showing up across the nation in states where lawmakers are encouraging – and forcing – students to take classes focused on American history and politics. The University of Iowa’s Center for Intellectual Freedom also faced low enrollment, leading Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds to sign House File 2800, making American History classes at the center a requirement.
Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, fought a lawsuit opposing his decision to block schools and businesses from teaching and training about topics related to race and gender. The U.S. Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to stop the “Stop Woke” law. The decision by Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, confirmed that the policy was “positively dystopian”, as he labeled it in his 139-page ruling.
