At a time when the incessant kicking and squabbling of “X”-million dollars back and forth in the statehouse may seem distant, UW-Madison students are standing at the business end of a shot in the arm when they turn to timetables and the registrar’s website next week.
Operating off of proposals released by the governor’s office, the College of Letters and Sciences is prepared to cut approximately 200 classes for the fall 2003-2004 term. So far, 38 course offerings have been eliminated, and other cuts may be in the works, depending on legislative action in the state Capitol.
“We were protected somewhat due to our comprehensive role in undergraduate education. But our total budget is 10 percent of UW System, and 25 percent of this campus. The chancellor and provost gave us a below-average cut,” L&S dean Phillip Certain said.
Courses generally known as “bottlenecks,” or those required for a variety of majors, will be given utmost protection in the face of cuts, as will widely enrolled freshman-level classes designed to meet basic requirements. As most of these courses (i.e., communications, quantitative reasoning, ethnic studies, etc.) fall under the Letters and Sciences umbrella, resources will be allocated to place their protection at the top of the list.
That leaves typically under-enrolled and high-cost courses on the chopping block.
According to the Letters & Science Dean of Students’ office, 794 classes are currently under review. The list of classes is based on any suggestion of under-enrollment for the given class within the past five years.
Slashing basic course offerings cuts at the heart of what Bascom administrators consistently appeal to policy makers to preserve: the quality of a UW education. Fewer class offerings and larger class sizes are the most immediate and easily quantitative means by which to gauge this quality. It appears the dissolution of UW’s Industrial Research Institute, a key tie to the greater business community, may also be at hand.
In order to save additional offerings from being lost to students, we urge the state Legislature to allow UW students to do what any other citizen does when desiring a product in demand: pay the amount it is worth. A full, 18 percent tuition increase that would bring UW’s fees approximately in line with other Big Ten schools is necessary to preserve the excellence for which UW-Madison has become renowned. If students are willing to ante up their share, we implore the Legislature to deafen the blow dealt UW in Gov. Doyle’s proposal. Any further cuts in student services gouge the state of its most valuable economic asset: a highly skilled and educated populace.
