Graduate Senator's Response to Budget Cut

The budget cuts that have been imposed by the Georgia State Legislature and subsequently proposed by the University System of Georgia will indeed change the landscape of higher education in Georgia in general and graduate education in particular. The logical starting point is to ask, "why education?" The legislature must know the value of a higher education and also the value of an educated public. An educated public adds value to a state, not only in its ability to make decisions but also in its ability to draw employment opportunity, which helps maintain its municipalities and associated services. Alternately, we proponents of education have proposed, what we detest as an American public, are taxes, which help pay for our municipalities. There have been calls for increased taxes on somewhat arbitrary goods, such as cigarettes and (non) carbonated drinks. Thus, the current economic downturn, assumes better times will come, but no one knows when those times will come, rendering us all uncertain. No one has answers to how we get out of this conundrum: raise taxes on seemingly arbitrary goods and services or cut back on goods/services/jobs. The constellation of alternatives seem numerous, but time is of the essence.

After laying out the general terms of our economic situation, we see the consequences play out in the request for UGA to cut another 60 million dollars from a budget which has already cut 100 million dollars from its budget over the past two years. To be fair, the Georgia legislature sees a need to cut spending and does not want to tax citizens in a recession, but simultaneously views the lives of students as decadent and ultimately more able to sacrifice for the greater good of the state, at-large.

As a graduate student, the prospect of cutting "all non-contract teach faculty" seems ominous for those are currently serving in a para-professional role. As para-professionals, we take classes as students and we also serve the university in various roles as less-than-well-paid workers. This middle position creates, again, uncertainty for graduate education. Such uncertainty is focused on the lack of specificity and the dearth in overt mention of graduate students in the University's proposal. As a result, a proliferation of questions arises: will the cutting of non-contract teach faculty mean an increase in teaching/graduate/research assistants? Are graduate students categorized as non-contract faculty? How does this affect those in-coming or newly accepted graduate students to UGA? Will this mean a mass exodus of tenured and tenure-track faculty, whom graduate students depend on for research opportunities and the like? In other words, how will the current proposed budget cuts affect graduate education at the University of Georgia?

Contributed by: Marcus Coleman, Graduate School Senator

Response to proposed budget cut

UGA is being forced to look at a possible $60 million budget cut for 2011, in addition to the $100 million reduction already taken over the past 2 years.

A budget cut of that size impacts every student, and as the primary clientele of this University we find these cuts to be unbearable.

As a student at the University of Georgia, you can make a bigger impact than you may think. The history of our university has shown that when students speak up, change happens.

During desegregation, the Governor nearly closed the University to enforce a state law mandating segregation at all state institutions. It was UGA students that personally convinced him to do otherwise.

When Georgia needed a forestry school in the thick of The Great Depression, a junior forestry major convinced Governor E.D. Rivers to build it. Even within the last six years, our SGA joined others from around the state to prevent mid-year tuition increases and a toll booth on GA-316. We need your help to continue the tradition.

SGA will host an emergency information session, tonight at 7 in MLC 148 to discuss the student response to these proposed budget reductions. On Friday, UGA and Georgia Tech’s SGA will meet with state legislators in Atlanta to express our concerns. The Student Government Association invites you to join us and students from every state public college and university as we rally at the Capitol in Atlanta on Monday, March 15. We want our legislators to hear us, loud and clear. If you’d like to travel with us, please sign up at www.uga.edu/sga.

More than $20 million will be cut in academic programming, including the elimination of all part-time and temporary faculty positions, according to the Board of Regents’ proposed cuts released Monday. It is estimated this action would reduce faculty, cutting the size of the incoming freshman class by 500 students and transfer students by 1000.

Additionally, the lack of faculty could force up to 500 students out of their current major, resulting in students having to change majors or transfer to another institution altogether.

And the list doesn’t stop at academic programs — more cuts could significantly affect our quality of student life. The proposal calls for the elimination of 12 positions within the Office of Vice President for Student Affairs.

Furthermore, according to the proposal summary, “[t]hese reductions would force the elimination of many recreational sports programs, including intramural and club sports. It would also force the loss of the only sign language interpreter on UGA staff, possibly jeopardizing students’ ADA rights.”

In total, the proposed cuts by the Board of Regents would eliminate 1,418 currently filled positions at the University of Georgia.

Being a student at the University of Georgia is indeed a privilege, yet these cuts significantly hinder the type and the quality of education that we receive.

We understand the state’s financial difficulties during this time and that cuts will undoubtedly happen.

However, we will continue to work closely with state legislators, the UGA administration, and the Board of Regents in managing these cuts to be as fair as possible without completely jeopardizing our academic experience.

In the meantime, we need your voice now. Please join us for the discussion tonight and sign a petition against the budget cuts at http://www.petitiononline.com/georgia1/petition.html.

Contributed by: Katie Barlow, SGA President