The USM Faculty Senate voted in favor of dropping the Entry Year Experience – or EYE – course requirement for incoming freshmen of the Fall ’09 semester. In their monthly meeting last Friday, the Senate voted 16-7 to postpone making an EYE course required for next year’s freshmen class.
The EYE courses, introduced last January as a part of the new curriculum, were conceived as an interdisciplinary introduction to higher education. First year students who might feel daunted by the impending list of general education requirements are given a chance to broaden their horizons with these unique course offerings.
Political Science professor Michael Hamilton introduce the issue, noting that only 44 of the necessary 55 sections of EYE courses needed to accommodate all freshmen have been developed.
“We are unable to deliver the number of sections we know we need to fulfill the requirement”, Hamilton said.
Hamilton voiced his concern that requiring students to take a course for which there were not an adequate number of section could make for a “scheduling and [public relations] disasters,” or end up in an overcrowded class that would detract from the conceived intimacy of the courses.
“With the shortages we face in available sections of EYE, we are undermining the principles of the new curriculum,” said Professor Susan Feiner.
EYE courses such as “HIV/AIDS: Science Society and Politics” and “Shopping: American Consumerism” draw from different concentrations and seek to excite first year students about the wide range of courses and subjects, while giving them a feel for the education at the college level.
“This is the first time 90 percent of students have heard the word ‘interdisciplinary,’ ” said Media Studies professor Dennis Gilbert.
President Botman also addressed the Faculty Senate, and along with Chief Financial Officer Dick Campbell, discussed the impending $2.7 million curtailment of USM’s state funding.
“I don’t have to belabor the point that we are in exceedingly hard times,” said Botman.
Calling the search to cut $2.7 million an “excruciating task,” Botman also pointed out that these cuts would likely not be the last due to what she called “anemic” tax revenue in Maine.
“The moment we find those dollars.we might be looking at further cuts in 2010, and 2011,” said Botman.
Botman told the Senate she is not content to slowly whittle away at USM in the name of budget cuts – what she called “death by a thousand cuts”, but rather, would like the university to re-imagine itself, and become more financially sustainable in the process.
“If I were to imagine USM in ten years, it would be a very different place.” said Botman.
Business department representative Bob Heiser shared his concern with Botman regarding how announcements of budget cut. With so much of USM’s funding coming through tuition, he felt the school must mediate how it’s perceived in the media if it wants to attract students.
“I don’t want our brand to be undermined by the media,” Heiser said, who suggested tasking the marketing department with addressing the issue.
CFO Dick Campbell also presented USM’s budget for the current and upcoming year, which has been carefully reconsidered in light of current and future cuts.
Both Botman and Campbell admitted that USM’s budgeting practices have historically be very undisciplined, with Campbell describing his primary job as “conducting triage” in his two years in the school’s CFO position.
“This university has been very decentralized in it’s budget.” Said Botman, who also suggested the creation of a budgetary advisory committee, to provide oversight and advice to the administration as it seeks to keep tighter watch over its finances.