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The Ant and the Grasshopper and Program Termination
The news from Louisiana State University is sad indeed. Fourteen veteran foreign language instructors to be discharged in January and plans for the termination of the major in German and Latin. This follows grim news for foreign language programs from SUNY Albany. These are subjects that are at the heart of a liberal arts education. Yet, the cost issues faced by LSU and SUNY Albany, and a host of other institutions are dire indeed, and the expedient of putting the burden of budgetary woes on students with yet more increases in tuition is unethical and ultimately self-defeating. LSU's trustees and boards throughout the nation must brace themselves to make cuts that will be unpopular with faculty constituencies. As Robert Dickeson showed so clearly in Prioritizing Academic Programs and Services, academic program restructuring and reduction is inevitable, painful as that is. (Dickeson will speak at Friday’s ATHENA conference.) Governor Bobby Jindal had no reasonable alternative to the deep cuts in higher education he has ordered. LSU Chancellor Michael Martin generally had it right in making the difficult decision of these terminations, "That is the tragedy of the economic condition we live in." But all states should take note: there are better and worse ways to do it. Prudent institutions, especially those in university systems, have been forming consortia. The California Legislative Analyst's Office recently urged the state to follow the examples it provides in the report of cost-savings academic program partnerships and collaborations. ACTA previously noted how the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education was able to maintain and indeed expand its low-enrollment foreign language programs through inter-campus consortia and interactive video classes. Difficult times are ahead for all, but a terrible, sad winter of program terminations and fewer opportunities of students awaits the academic grasshoppers who cling to an unaffordable status quo. Time is running out rapidly.
Posted by Michael Poliakoff on November 03, 2010 at November 3, 2010 02:03 PM
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