The debate over the future of the College of Arts and Sciences continued at the July 17 Town Hall meeting, where UT students questioned and protested UT President Lloyd Jacobs' policies and intentions regarding the college.
The students, organized by Evan Morrison, a junior majoring in history, and Colleen Eldrige, a junior majoring in English, staged the rally half an hour before the beginning of the Town Hall. They took the opportunity to give out press packets containing more documents received through public records requests.
Numerous media outlets, including The Blade, Fox Toledo, WTVG and WTOL were present to cover the protest.
"Millions of dollars have been cut from the budget for our college in the past four years," Meg Sciarini, a junior majoring in art and film, said in a press release.
The press release also mentioned that the "mandated 10 percent departmental cuts are described as 'Conversation starters' … more drastic cuts are planned."
Those allegations are not true, said Scott Scarborough, UT's senior vice president for finance and administration.
During the meeting, Morrison questioned Scarborough about the $2 million cut in the CAS budget, citing a presentation during a budget hearing by the college's dean, Yueh-Ting Lee. Scarborough responded saying Lee's presentation at the time was only a "conversation starter" and those numbers may not be accurate.
Scarborough said while Morrison is correct about the $37.3 million budget for the CAS, it does not include the $17.5 million budgeted elsewhere for the college and $1.6 million of designated revenue, which totals $56.4 million in expenditures.
Morrison insisted the importance of the actual numbers from the CAS budget and argued that Scarborough's numbers were actually revenues generated by the CAS and not expenditures.
According to Scarborough, the CAS expenditures actually increased for the last four years. In 2004, the expenditure was $51.5 million, and this year it was $56.4 million.
Sciarini, the first student to ask a question during the Town Hall, invited Jacobs to talk more about "mass-customization," a term introduced to the UT community through the Second Annual Address. Jacobs explained the term as a mechanism to allow the university to satisfy students' needs and satisfies "extreme student centeredness."
Jacobs noted in an interview after the Town Hall that much of the improvement that can be made to the student experience at UT deals primarily with advising and not vast changes to the core curriculum.
He said he became aware of such problems through e-mail complaints from students. When asked if he thought UT or the CAS was failing students before his administration, he said, "No, I don't think so."
Sciarini added that she and other CAS students don't feel like they are being appreciated and supported when the STEMM disciplines seem to get so much attention. Jacobs denied this and expressed the significance of the CAS.
Jacobs stated his desire to see the value of all students' degrees improve at UT, marked by the university's upward mobility in national rankings.
He also reminded those in attendance there was no budget cut in the CAS. He also denied the allegation that he intended to "systematically" cut programs or departments within the CAS, in the budget or elsewhere.
Main Campus Provost Rosemary Haggett pointed out that of the 27 faculty positions approved for the university this year, 11 are going to the CAS. The students protested that the number may be inflated if the positions include replacements for those faculty members who have left UT in the last year. Haggett responded by saying that the number does not include those faculty.
Morrisson inquired about the future of the history department and its Ph.D program, noting that seven tenured-track positions were lost in the last five years. Jacobs said he has no intentions of cutting the program, but he added that he couldn't promise the future would be like the present.
Eldrige mentioned one of her core classes, morphology, might not even be offered for several semesters. She added it is unacceptable that a core requirement could not be offered at UT, no matter the reason.
Jacobs then reminded the students about the $1 billion revenue shortage that the state is experiencing due in part to the sub-prime mortgage foreclosure crisis racking the nation's economy and the difficulties it poses to funding every academic program.
Colleen Eldridge said it was unfortunate they only had 30 minutes to ask questions, although Jacobs went over 20 minutes longer than planned.
"[The president] suggested that we continue the dialog by making sure everyone gets answers to their questions," Haggett said.
"I think the president offered to have a third party do an analysis of their questions, so I think there's a willingness to certainly try to get to share factual knowledge with the university community, including the students," Haggett said.
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