College deans bag shortcuts to account for lost funding

Administration to examine specific cuts July 1

SIUC college deans seem to have taken the lead from the grocery store inspired game show “Supermarket Sweep.”

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Deans are scurrying through the aisles of their departments and cutting corners after the state budget slash left SIU $23 million short.

The deans have collected items as small as computer print cartridges and as large as extra course sessions. Throwing them into their wire baskets, the products make up the delicacies and necessities needed to nourish a college’s financial appetite.

But for each college, the competition is not as fierce as running over its opponent’s toe with a shopping cart. It is a cooperative effort to prepare their departments, faculty and students for the college cuts to be finalized in early July.

Kyle Perkins, interim provost and vice chancellor for Academics Affairs, said the University administration, the college deans and department directors will meet July 1 to specify each area’s cuts and the resulting effects.

But unlike the contestants on “Supermarket Sweep,” game show host David Ruprecht will not give the deans clues to figure out how to adjust their college’s funding areas. Herein lies the ambitious nature of each administrative head to find cost-efficient preparations.

Shirley Clay Scott, College of Liberal Arts dean, started early after the initial and latest budget cut announcements to adjust funding in different areas.

“We will not fill many faculty lines, and we have given up many graduate assistantships,” Scott said. “We do whatever we can with the funds we have.”

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COLA has given up its faculty travel expenses, a fund which allows staff to do research in different locations, money for office equipment and some courses.

Scott is in the process of opening more sections for English 101 and Speech Communications 101, allowing for one hundred more seats in those classes for fall.

Finding clear avenues to balance the decreased funding is difficult for Scott. But she said it is important to remember the priority is on students and the necessities needed to provide them with a sound education.

“We are a large college and have a large population of graduate students. We could be down 75 graduate assistantships,” Scott said. She said she is still unsure as to what might be cut in the future.

“We can also not do modern research and teaching without computers,” she said. “We need at least a minimum schedule to serve students.”

Manjunath Pendakur, dean of the College of Mass Communications and Media Arts, said his graduate and undergraduate programs are technologically centered and dependent upon updated equipment. Consequently, the college’s technological demands are constantly growing.

“The media technologies are heavily becoming computerized, and you have to buy new equipment to keep up to date,” Pendakur said. “With this cut that we are facing, we have to give back some of our equipment money, which means the department won’t have as much money to buy equipment next year as they have in the past.”

He also said the faculty positions, which he hoped would be filled, will not be filled because the University had to give back money to the state. He said no matter which way one looks at it, the cut is very deep not only to the students but to the faculty as well.

Pendakur said it is fortunate for his college that freshman-level courses will not be affected by the cut. However, the courses may be limited to one offering per school year.

“My hope is this is a temporary phenomena, the state will recover its revenues very quickly and we can rebuild the programs,” he said.

Similar to the groans Ruprecht hears from “Supermarket Sweep” contestants, Morteza Daneshdoost, president of the Faculty Association, has received grievances from faculty staff regarding unfair labor practices related to faculty positions.

The feelings faculty and staff have expressed regarding the allocation of the budget cuts to colleges are draw from vacant faculty positions, according to Daneshdoost.

“Not that I think the appropriations are coming to a closure; we understand that the chancellor has indicated that the last budget shortfall did not come out of colleges,” he said. “We have been saying all along that there are funds out there available to color shortfalls if the administration’s priorities are to keep the quality of education intact.”

Keith Hillkirk, dean of the College of Education and Human Services, said with the adjustments all colleges are making, his departments are not dependent on state funding.

The “Teacher Quality Enhancement” program, funded by state and federal dollars, enables improvement for technology in teacher education programs. Another federally funded program, “Adventures of American Mind,” will help in other ways to improve technology.

Hillkirk said it is important for the University to recognize each of the colleges and their specific needs, despite a fairly even cut across the board.

“A significant part of our work is done off-campus, but primarily placing the students in rehabilitation centers, social service agencies and schools,” he said. “As dean, it is my job to be explaining that mission to students and faculty.”

Allan Karnes, a professor for the department of accountancy, said he believes this mission has not been heard loud and clear by the University and the administration.

Within his department and other offices, he said some individuals have tried using calling cards to save on long-distance phone bills, which they may have to pay a portion back to the school.

Karnes said the expenses of print cartridges, Xerox paper and phone bills do not compare to larger concerns such as graduate assistantships. With 60 accountancy graduate students applying for one program available, he said the administration’s plans are not plausible.

“The chancellor indicated with the tuition increase, they would lose no graduate assistantships” he said. “I don’t know if that is going to happen.”

The college deans’ shopping carts are full to the brim with items to prepare for their specific cuts. Unlike “Supermarket Sweep,” these non-perishable products will not have a final destination. When the cuts are finalized, more items will have to be pulled from the shelves.

Samantha Edmondson can be reached at [email protected]