Students Affected by VCU Spending Cuts

Solutions to budgetary crisis range from cuts in administrative expenses to elimination of electives.

By Paul B. O'Brien

Virginia Commonwealth University students are facing much more difficulty finding courses to fit their needs.

A five percent budget cut has caused VCU President Eugene Trani's administration to make curriculum changes that forced many students to take a second look at their schedules for this semester.

Caitlyn Grove, a sophomore and English major, had difficulty finding several of her planned courses. "When I was searching for classes, it was difficult to find available sections for a lot of them. I needed a physics elective and the one I wanted, Wonders of Technology, had been removed from the list," she said.

Despite the difficulties the students are experiencing, the biggest impact of the cuts is being felt on the administrative side of the university, said Pam Lepley, VCU's director of communications and public relations.

"The priorities are to maintain the instructional core of the university, and to take as much of the cuts as possible on the administrative side," said Lepley. "That would include cuts in travel, dues, subscriptions, office supplies and equipment, postage, and making sure we're using energy-saving devices. And the list goes on."

But the cuts affect all academic units of the university. "Each unit at VCU was given directions to assign a rating to every class they had scheduled for the upcoming spring semester," said Dr. Judy VanSlyke Turk, director of the School of Mass Communications. The top category, she said, listed classes that had to be offered for students to graduate this year. Second preference was given to required classes, and the third covered elective classes.

The dean of the College of Humanities and Science also had a voice in the reductions for Dr. Turk's area. "With the concurrence of the dean's office, we pretty much eliminated all electives for this semester," Turk said.

She emphasized that the reductions varied greatly in academic units. "Mass communications is one example of how this has impacted students. I'm sure there were some departments where students didn't even notice," added Turk.

While the budget cuts are responsible for some course cutbacks, academic advisor Natasha J. Long said there may be varying reasons.

"As students have noticed, there were fewer classes being offered and many of the classes that have been open to all students now have major restrictions," said Long. "It can be argued that the budget cuts were to blame. However, some of the changes could be attributed to the implementation of the new general education curriculum."

On top of this year's budget cuts, future austerity moves are already in place.

"It is concrete that there will be a 15 percent reduction for fiscal year 2010 on top of the five percent for 2009," said Lepley. "Many months ago, the state asked us to plan for multiple cuts, so I feel that we have a good handle on things, having known ahead of time."

Lepley added that some plans are on hold while VCU weathers the current economic storm.

"Dr. Trani said the other day that this is comparable to the recession of 2002. We lost a lot then and had just gotten back to that level again. Unfortunately with the latest recession, what we've lost takes us back to where we were before."