Unease and tension filled 302 Catt Hall on Friday, Jan. 28, as a group of about 30 faculty and staff members and a few students gathered for the second in a series of three meetings to discuss budget proposals in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The college has given up $13.55 million over the past three years, according to a handout provided at the forum. Despite this year’s record enrollment, Michael Whiteford, dean of LAS, clarified that tuition dollars aren’t something that the college can use when planning its budget.

“[Student tuition fees] are one-time dollars,” Whiteford said. “We get our budget cut … by taking permanent dollars and we’re allowed to do certain things with one-time dollars, it’s a very interesting and strange thing. So we have a number of departments right now that owe us permanent dollars but are sort of awash with one time dollars due to a series of things, so the question is really an issue of what can we afford to do.”

Discussion covered a number of concerns from faculty and students, involving the suggestions published in the Blue Sky Task Force.

One concern addressed was why the focus has been placed on social science and humanities departments with the college.

“The cuts that have gone to the social science and humanities departments are actually statistically almost in all cases less then the cuts that have gone into the science departments, [which have] taken equally large cuts,” said David Oliver, associate dean of LAS.

The fact that there are more small departments in the social sciences means that the loss of faculty lines has a more profound effect on those departments before they impact some of the larger departments, like biological sciences and physics, Oliver said.

This fact brought social sciences to the forefront and brought about questions of whether there is some sort of structural organization that can help the faculty within the social sciences.

“The rest of them are in the next round of looking into reorganization once this is worked out to see how there will be potentially look at different organizations in the physical sciences and mathematical sciences,” Oliver said. “So this is not a matter of being singled out for any reason, it’s just that the problem has become more acute in social sciences and humanities faster than [in other departments.]”

Faculty voiced many concerns about suggestions to consolidate departments, create synergies between departments, cut graduate student programs and reduce the amount of faculty employed by the college.

“It seems to me that there are disjoint issues,” said Harvey Lapan, university professor of economics. “One is how to handle the budget cuts: They’re coming. And the second is how to organize departments to maximize something. And I take it it’s a granted premise now that the reorganization by itself isn’t going to save money. But in order to know how to reorganize departments, you have to know what’s going to be cut and at the end of the day that’s the job of the administration.”

Lapan called on the administration to make these budgetary decisions in order for the departments of the college to make their cuts appropriately. He also brought attention to the fact that some departments like economics have their best synergies with other colleges, rather than within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Whiteford noted that two priorities that the college has include highly-ranked departments that the university, the college and its external constituents expect to remain strong and student destinations — or what they will end up majoring in.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences teaches about 60 percent of all student credit hours at the university, with courses that are required for majors from other colleges.

“We have to be responsible and responsive to student demand, not only within the college, but from [other colleges that want certain courses],” Whiteford said.

Arne Hallam, associate dean for budget and personnel for LAS, suggested everyone review the college’s strategic plan to look at where cuts will come.

“Say all these budget cuts happen, graduate programs go away, people are teaching more classes than [in] the past, is the best way to have happy, productive faculty simply having the current departments we have, current structures we have … and that’s why we’re asking for input,” Hallam said.

Ian Ringgenberg, graduate student in interdisciplinary graduate studies, offered the suggestion to centralize student advising services, especially with interdisciplinary studies being a strong possibility in the future.

This suggestion received some flack later on for targeting the most vulnerable employees and only potentially saving a small amount of money.

Anastasia Bodnar, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate and graduate student in agronomy, questioned whether cutting graduate student programs would result in faculty loss in the college.

“I just about guarantee there will be faculty loss,” said Pamela Riney-Kehrberg, chair of the history department. “Having graduate students to work with you is a great luxury, but it also means that you can teach 300 student classes and maintain some sort of integrity in what the students take.”

Removing graduate students would eliminate any kind of student writing and would cause hardship for students as well as the relocation of faculty members, Riney-Kehrberg said.

Whiteford noted that graduate student lines are one place where cuts can be made with relatively little advanced warning.

Discussion participants also noted discrepancies between the strategic plan of the university and the college.

The one-time dollars, generated from student tuition among other things, are flowing to where the demand is within the college, Whiteford said, allowing departments to hire lecturers and add new sections of popular courses. Record enrollments have made this possible, but if enrollment declines the changes that are possible now won’t be in the future.

Whiteford stressed the point that tuition increases, which are speculated to be anywhere between 0.9 and 7 percent for next year, shouldn’t have to make up for these potential budget deficiencies.

Bodnar raised concerns about whether the impact that restructuring would have on undergraduate and graduate students are being considered while these conversations are taking place.

“If an undergraduate or a graduate student has a degree that says interdisciplinary social sciences, does that even mean anything?” Bodnar asked. 

This concern was the addressed by faculty, who stated that faculty organization and departmental structures is not synonymous with program organization.

“I guess … I just hope that hirability is a factor that is being considered when we’re looking at merging things,” Bodnar said.

The final open forum discussion will take place from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in 302 Catt Hall.