Course Reassessment May Leave Our Liberal Arts Name in Shards

By JAMES MOORE

Recently, it has come to the attention of many students at the University of Mary Washington that there may be some “reallocation of resources” and cutting of funding from certain departments at the school. This action appears to have been taken by the administration without the consideration of student input.

The process will include hiring a consulting firm whose primary goal is to help the school save money. Unfortunately, this could mean cutting funding from some of the liberal arts programs at the school, and possibly the removal of some courses altogether.

This is a disturbing revelation, since UMW calls itself a liberal arts institution.

Although President Rick Hurley stated in an email that he sent to faculty on Nov. 13th that the cutting of certain programs will make the school seem more distinctive, I fear that it could have the opposite effect. UMW is already a pretty distinct place due to the rich variety of liberal arts courses that it already offers.

Interim Provost Ian Newbould, in an interview with the Bullet, insisted that this decision was not due to financial strain on the university. If this is the case, then why should funding have to be cut at all?

Personally, I feel that, while adding more educational programs is important, it should not be done at the expense of others that are already firmly established at the school. Maybe, instead of constant construction, the school could use the money being put toward those projects to help implement new programs.

The implications of this reassessment of programs include the possibility that only educational programs deemed to be profitable will be introduced and expanded, whereas less lucrative ones will receive less attention and be neglected.

Therefore, it appears that the action will mostly be a blatant moneymaking move by the school, which is not appropriate since it does not take into account the opinions of the student body.

I think the administration should wait on this decision until it can be made without educational programs receiving budget cuts or otherwise suffering from the expansion of new programs.