by Jen Malcom
Looking for an interesting minor with small classes and a good student to faculty ratio?
You might be out of luck.
While interdisciplinary minors, such as Asian Studies and Marine Science, may be rich in academic value, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Dr. Timothy Snyder argues that they are too costly.
Snyder, at a meeting with the faculty said, “… I cannot, in good conscience, continue without considering which programs are serving our college and institution well enough to merit the resources we are dedicating to them.”
Cuts of individual courses have already been made, limiting academic choices. Plans are in the works to create a committee to evaluate and possibly eliminate some interdisciplinary minor programs.
“I have already eliminated less-than-ten-student courses and asked chairs and program directors to collapse sections more rigorously and uniformly than we have in the past,” said Snyder.
Students don’t like these changes. “I remember freshman year having a class with only eight people in it,” said Nicole Pendolfi, ’04. “It was a great class and I’m glad I took it. It’s too bad that people will no longer be able to benefit from classes like that.”
Snyder conceded, “Without question, any cutting will leave us with fewer options, hence a loss in curricular richness. But we have to balance that against the gains that resources being devoted to very few students and faculty might bring to other programs of the college.”
Dr. James Mullan, director of the Irish studies minor, disagrees. “Why not let them exist? They add to the academic richness. I don’t see the need to destroy a minor. That’s an awful extreme way of handling a temporary glitch.”
Dr. Ellen Umansky, director of the Jewish studies minor, emphasized that it isn’t just the numbers graduating, but “the quality of the courses, the interest on the part of the students, and the kind of programming and special events that they sponsor or co-sponsor.”
Snyder’s concerns stem from the fact that fewer than five students per program per year graduate in each minor.
The dean is not convinced that some of the programs are pulling their weight, but refused to comment on which minors specifically he plans to eliminate, if any.
“If we continue down this path, we will further increase the size of our present mountain of adjuncts, and the staff and administrative bloat…required to service these kinds of requests is unfathomable,” said Snyder.
“We have to wonder if we need so many minors, given their costs and given the numbers of students they serve,” said Snyder.
Two well-known and highly regarded programs, which combined produce roughly seven graduating minors per year, have a combined budget that surpasses that of the entire Department of Philosophy by almost $1,000, and out-funds six other departments of similar size, said Snyder.
However, directors of some interdisciplinary minor programs are defending their offerings.
“It would be very dangerous to have an evaluation of interdisciplinary minors based on graduation rates,” said Dr. David McFadden, director of the Russian and East European studies minor. “We graduate about four, five, six minors a year, but we have students studying abroad in St. Petersburg, we bring in Russian scholars to speak on campus, we have exchange students come in. All that doesn’t get reflected in the number of minors that graduate.”
Students agreed. “I’m planning to declare a minor in Italian studies,” said Marisa Muzic, ’03. “It’s something that is quite unusual to study and I think it will look good on a resume to have studied a unique discipline.”
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