What is behind the proposed cuts at AU?
In a step toward transparency, AU President Charley Edmondson attended Student Senate Nov. 18 with a grave forecast of events to come: the cutting of multiple University programs.
“Every institution, whether educational or not, must change, must adapt to its environment," Edmondson said.
The Strategic Planning Council was created after a consultation of University statistics. Seats on this council were given to representatives from each department within the University, the University provost and two student representatives, sophomore Ana Gauthier and junior Amos Mainville, the Student Senate President.
According to the document disseminated by council members, the Strategic Planning Council was formed to create proposals for restructuring or cutting certain departments, programs, or positions based on their financial viability. The council aims to assess the financial integrity of every program and individual at Alfred University.
In the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, consideration is being given to the elimination of the German program and the reduction of the French program to a minor. Within the Inamori School of Engineering, Electrical Engineering is being considered for elimination. The ski team also faces possible elimination, and depending on how high fall semester enrollment is for 2010, one of the suites will be closed.
Cutting the German major has been proposed based on course statistics stating that the program has the fewest overall credit hours of the three majors: German, French and Spanish. French is facing a reduction to a minor based on the same analysis.
The Inamori School of Engineering considered class listings with enrollment less than 10 students, the number of graduating majors, student-to-faculty ratios and program costs in suggesting a cut. Based on these criteria, Electrical Engineering was found to be the weakest program.
In accordance with the Faculty Handbook, the timeline provided to Faculty Senate states that the final decision will be made Feb. 5, and information will be provided to the University community by Feb. 15.
Edmondson said at the Nov. 18 meeting that part of the reason for these cuts is that New York is experiencing the toughest economic period it has encountered since 1931. The repercussions of this are that the state is now looking to cut funding across the board.
The New York State Division of the Budget website states that financing of education and arts are facing a proposed reduction of $36,910,000. These reductions include cuts to both the Higher Education Opportunity Program, or HEOP, as well as Bundy Aid, which funds private colleges and universities based on graduation rates and level of degrees awarded. Fiscal support of SUNY schools can expect to be truncated by the sum of $17,412,000. The significance of this data has hastened timelines throughout New York’s higher education system.
Although AU is a private institution, its stability, longevity, and overall vitality are contingent upon certain qualifications that are ultimately beyond the breadth of AU’s control.
“This will not be a set of comments directed towards a short-term financial crisis of the institution," Edmondson said in the introduction to his speech to Student Senate. "We do not have a short term financial crisis.”
At the Senate meeting, Edmondson said 70 percent of students who enroll at Alfred University are residents of New York State. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, between the years 2000 and 2008 the population of New York State grew by 2.7 percent, or 5.3 percent less than the national average, which was 8 percent.
At this point it is understood that Alfred University is experiencing many of the same unforeseen circumstances as its New York contemporaries.
Private and public institutions big and small throughout New York State, such as SUNY Geneseo and Hofstra University, either are or will be working to circumnavigate the turbulent economic future in store. Exacerbating the situation is the fact that the number and the quality of institutions of higher education in New York State make New York a very competitive market for recruiting college students.
The three counties most represented in Alfred University’s student population are Monroe, Steuben and Allegany. Between the years 2000 and 2008, these counties all experienced negative population growth. Administrative decisions have been made to counteract the effects of declining numbers of college-age persons, decreasing birth rates and a trend of significant emigration from New York.
Data reported in the 2006 census has led officials at AU to believe that by 2017 the pool from which prospective AU students are recruited will have shrunk by 18.5 percent. Also by 2017, the population of high school graduates within Monroe, Steuben and Allegany counties available to the University will have fallen by 23 percent. Furthermore, the average household income is expected to fall enough to restrict the number of persons who may realistically be able to attend AU.
According to Gauthier, the University is making vertical cuts, as opposed to previously implemented horizontal cuts, due to an analysis and recognition of the differing results.
A horizontal cut is one that takes a percentage out of individual university budgets. For instance, a cut to the Modern Languages department would mean that each program’s budget would receive a decreased percentage of funding. The result would be that for each language, fewer credit hours would be taught to larger classes.
University officials found that this method of retaining revenue was too short-sighted and ultimately weakens the department. The goal of these budget and corresponding position cuts, according to the proposal, is to prospectively strengthen Alfred University.
A vertical cut is one that, instead of taking a percentage off the top of the program, eliminates the entire program or position.
Vertical cuts are being administered to aspects of the University that do not have a favorable cost-benefit ratio.
The vertical cut of a program or position is thought by administrators to be more beneficial because it leaves the surrounding programs unscathed. Were there to be a cut to programs within the Modern Languages department, an entire position or program would be eliminated. In this case, a budget cut means the complete elimination of a program. Through this practice of loss prevention, if a language were to be cut, the remaining programs and salaries would be unaffected.
Theoretically, this would allow those programs remaining to be strengthened over a period of time.
The Strategic Planning Council has written into its criteria that both the past and prospective future of these programs is thoroughly considered prior to their elimination. These proposals are the result of consensus based on present statistics and historical records.
The reasons for and against cutting each program can be seen in the proposal, which was disseminated by the Strategic Planning Council’s student representatives. The proposal can also be found at thefiatlux.com.
According to documents provided to the Fiat Lux, not all relevant historical data concerning Modern Languages is presented in the proposal.
Between 1973 and 1993, there were six alterations to the department, either through the cut of a program or the termination of course offerings for a program. The German program was affected three times and French was affected four times. This implies that these programs, among other Modern Languages programs, have been either passively or actively cut several times only to be reinstated at a later time.
As mentioned in the proposal, the potential cuts to the department of Modern Languages could endanger Alfred University’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter. The first request for a PBK chapter was made in 1974 with the submission of a letter to the headquarters in Washington, D.C. AU received its chapter in 2004.
At the time, Edmondson acknowledged PBK’s importance to the value of an AU degree.
“It’s a special achievement for Liberal Arts and Sciences. I think it will enhance the value of an Alfred degree, but most of all, I am happy for those who are in it,” Edmondson said in a May 4, 2004 Fiat Lux article.
Phi Beta Kappa was founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary. Since then, PBK has been associated with distinguished institutions that are dedicated to the study of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Currently, as stated on the Phi Beta Kappa website, only about 10 percent of colleges and universities in the U.S. have a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. Among those attributes considered by Phi Beta Kappa is the integrity of Modern Languages taught at a university.
More information about the proposed cuts can be found on the thefiatlux.com, including a liveblog covering the Dec. 2 Student Senate meeting where Mainville and Gauthier discussed the cuts with the student body.
