Sunday, May 15, 2011

Budget Cuts

Last week, a mailing list glitch resulted in a message from the SLIS's program director, Stephen Bajjaly, being circulated to the entire listserv. Highlights of the message:
As you have undoubtedly heard, the university is facing an unprecedented cut in its state appropriation that is expected to lead to a substantial budget cut. For the School, this means we’ll need to trim our course offerings a bit and only focus on the courses students most want to take. Our goal is to reduce our budget to the level expected from us and yet that will have as minimal impact on our students as possible.  

We need your assistance within the next few weeks or you may find that your top class choices are unavailable. We cannot wait until the last minute to cut low-enrollment courses and let the faculty members know.
Another Professor circulated a reminder to students interested in his course, slated for this fall, and offered this tidbit of information, "A decision to offer or cancel the course will be made in early June based on the number of students who register this month."

Taking into consideration the unfortunate cancellation of the study abroad opportunity to Deutschland, I know, firsthand, that those statements are not fluff which leaves me feeling a bit anxious about the availability of my fall classes. The early childhood literature class I registered for had adequate enrollment; however, the seminar class (vampires, wizards, and superheroes) was looking a bit sparse with a mere 5 students enrolled (myself included).

To date, I have amended my Plan of Work three times with the fourth revision awaiting submission to my adviser. Considering the current conundrum, I think I will hold off submitting until I know how fall term is going to shake down.

Words: nettlesome, frustrating, irksome, galling, vexatious, maddening, annoying, bothersome, rebarbative, troublesome...

Update (5.16.2011): To date, the seminar course (vampires, wizards, and superheroes) has 11 students enrolled with 19 seats remaining and the children's literature class (pre-school - grade 3) has 23 students registered with 2 seats remaining. 

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