Sleep and Fear

There has been a bit of a stir up around BSU, beginning, for me, with my Myth teacher a few weeks ago. He walked into the classroom with his usual jaunt, his hair still frizzy enough to have been electrocuted, and he began class with, "What a gloomy day out, and I'm sad to say it is reflecting the ol' Scout's mood of late as well . . ." (insert deep smokers hack every third word). He went on to say that his department, Art History, was under fire. He used a lot of mythic examples (Prometheus, among them) to talk himself into going down fighting. I was terribly confused at this point, and asked him what was going on. He told me our president (of BSU) was thinking of getting rid of the Art History department.  Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday since then he has mentioned it at the start of class, a blip of an update, before storming into the day's topic.
It wasn't until two days ago that I finally found out what the heck was going on. BSU, as well as other universities/colleges like Mankato and St. Cloud, are suffering about a $5 million budget cut. Our student paper, Northern Student and The Bemidji Pioneer have run articles on a conference President Hanson held to discuss the plans so far. Hanson's powerpoint can be found here. 
Though the meeting was meant for staff and the press only, the group that arrived to listen was made mostly of students.  According to the Northern Student, "The Liberal Arts programs that are being considered for early termination of faculty are Art History, Chemistry, English, History, A.C. Clark Library, Modern Languages, Music, Physics, Professional Education, and Technological Studies."
A few comments in this article put me on guard. For instance, '"We are strongly focusing on the liberal arts and some of these programs will not be able to offer as a major -- and that is intentional," said Hanson. "We are moving forward to decrease the number of faculty." In responce, Keith Marek, associate professor of Chemistry, said, "You mentioned that this is about financial savings, are there other areas that will be reduced?" "Other than Liberal Arts and reducing majors, no," said Hanson.'
And then there is this: "This seems to be a complete flip from what has been the mission of our university in the past-- specifically, us being a 'Liberal Arts' university with select professional programs," said Jeff Ueland, associate professor of Geography. "I don't know that is is a flip, but I don't know that the other [mission] was accurately describing what this university is," said Hanson. The use of white space in the minutes implied silence from the committee.'
Then, reading the Bemidji Pioneer, I was able to read more of an explanation. "The plan [Hanson's] called for reducing, eliminating, or retaining programs in three areas: administrative services, academic programs and ancillary programs (supplemental programs such as athletics) . . . Programs that are not mandated by the governor, Legislature, or the chancellor and can be eliminated will be a high priority." This confused me, not knowing what programs were mandated and not, but I continued to read and saw, "Other programs that are likely to be eliminated are those with high costs, low enrollment, low program quality, or poor student outcomes." This makes sense to me. But it still stings, knowing my Myth teacher won't be back next year. The story will ring true with many other professors college students came to know and enjoy. There is so much more to this story, so I recommend picking up the above mentioned newspapers for more information, or go here to read the Bemidji Pioneer's article.
I stayed after class to talk to the chair of the English department, who told me that she (and every other department head) must defend the worth of their department in 600 words or less. This bit of news can be found in Hanson's powerpoint. 600 words or less? I thought it was ridiculous in a scholarship essay, now let alone if the lively hood of a person's major depends on such a limited amount. My professor, however, seems confident that the English majors will more than survive. She brought up a point an alumni of BSU emailed her, "Most other majors come as a square peg or a round peg... well, this economy is like a triangle hole and an English major is like clay. Shove enough of it in there and it will fit."
One can only hope.