English professor Anne Jamison was planning to teach two upper-division English courses this summer but both were cut because of financial restraints.
Students and faculty in the U English department are bearing the burden of legislative budget cuts, which are affecting summer classes traditionally offered by the department through the U Continuing Education program.
“Obviously, this has a negative impact on students because many students count on summer courses for completing their majors and fulfilling requirements,” Jamison said.
“Many, what with juggling family and work responsibilities, have carefully planned their schedules to graduation on the basis of being able to take summer courses.”
The department will be cutting the number of summer classes by 40 percent by going from 14 classes to just 8, said Andrew Franta, associate chairman of the English department.
Although some students aren’t happy with the changes, they understand there is no other way.
“It pretty much sucks,” said Emily Primrose, a senior in English teaching. “It’s way unfortunate because it makes it a lot more difficult to not take classes that in the past you could have taken.”
English isn’t the only department with fewer classes this summer because of budget cuts.
“One of the impacts of the budget cuts and one of the ways to save money is to offer fewer classes,” said Matthew Burbank, chairman of the political science department.
Budget cuts will also affect adjunct faculty and opportunities for graduate students to teach. The English department will not hire any adjunct faculty during the summer, and most of them will not even be able to teach in the fall, said Vincent Pecora, chairman of the department.
“It’s been terrible for the adjunct professors who work so hard and are underpaid to begin with,” Jamison said.
In the English department, during the summer, graduate students and teacher’s assistants are usually offered summer positions to teach, but this year only one or two will have the opportunity to do so, Pecora said.
The communication department will have the same number of classes this summer, but two of the classes will be taught by faculty who will be teaching on overload without additional compensation, said Louise Degn, director of undergraduate studies for the department.
“That means the department is hiring two fewer adjunct instructors and saving those salaries,” Degn said.
All of these changes are creating problems for departments, faculty and students.
“Our ability is very limited by our budget cuts,” Franta said. “We can’t afford to pay regular faculty to come during the summer8212;a result will be larger classes.”
Primrose said she has noticed that some of her classes grew from 30 to 60 students this year.
Budget cuts could also have lasting effects on lectures.
The department has already lost travel money, cutting down on visiting speakers and writers, which diminishes the intellectual diversity and exchange at the U, Jamison said.
“We’re also not getting any pay raises, which, if it goes on, is likely to have a negative impact on faculty publishing or retention which in the long term could hurt the university’s standing,” she said.
It could result in a smaller faculty, larger classes and fewer courses offered, Jamison said.
Some students, such as Alex Ortega, a senior in English, fear the department will only offer the “bare essentials” during the summer, making it difficult to graduate.
“I would be ticked,” Ortega said.
Jamison said that it’s difficult to see budget cuts come to the U, especially in a time of recession.
“People really need the option of school during these times, to retrain, re-evaluate, change course, and even just to stay interested and positive,” she said.