Sunday, June 5, 2016

Watch U Wyoming budget cuts closely - Donna Barnes, Tribune

UW is facing a budget cut of over $45 million for this fiscal year and the next biennium. I encourage Wyoming residents who care about their only four-year university to follow closely the upcoming decisions on program reductions and eliminations. The university claims that the academic programs most likely to be cut have low enrollments or are of low quality or secondary to the mission of the university. Therefore, as chair of the Department of Sociology, I was surprised when my department was recently identified as a possible target of elimination. Neither low enrollments nor low quality describe my department. Sociology courses typically reach their maximum enrollment cap, and in the last five years over 75 undergraduate sociology majors have graduated from UW. My department has also taught courses in support of the University Studies Program to almost 7000 students since 2006. http://trib.com/opinion/letters/barnes-watch-uw-budget-cuts-closely/article_99e209a0-1264-5083-a0e4-8e1c2497acb8.html