This post is written by the members of SDS and people who attended Radical Film Night (every wednesday at 9 PM in Pearlman 202)!
What has been cut? As we sit in this room, we’ve found ourselves upset with the the large number of programs that have been cut in response to the budget crisis. We understand that programs do need to be cut, but we are upset with the lackof communication and consultation with students.
Here are the programs that we either know have been cut, think have been cut, or have heard that they are talking about cutting:
The Pool
The Stein (maybe, student workers have been told they will be cut)
Language 30 levels (this is being discussed)
USEM classes
Funding for Programming at Prospect Hill Terrece
Future Leonard Bernstein Quartet scholarships
Community Engaged Learning Programming
Midyear Dorms (they won’t be renovating a dorm for midyears)
This list isn’t neccesarily accurate, much of it is based on rumor and speculation. It is not an all-inclusive list. What programs of yours have been cut? What should be cut?
Lev, I think you misunderstood me. I was responding to Comradical’s comment more than your post. I thought the post did a very good job of being neutral.
What you say makes a lot of sense Alex.
I think it would also be helpful to tell us what has already been cut, as I only know what is reported in the newspapers.
Unfortunately, the Administration is keeping the discussions on what might be cut confidential. I think their reasoning concerns their not wanting a massive uproar about possible cuts – some things will certainly be cut – before they make some tentative decisions as to what those things might be, and what some of the choices are.
Ideally, sometime soon they would release a survey to the Student Body listing programs that they are considering cutting and having us vote on which ones are most important to us. This would allow widespread student input in an organized and constructed matter.
I think the Budget Cuts Committee is a good first step, with students sitting on it, but I also think a more widespread survey is in order once some basic organizational decisions are made and there is more concrete decision-making to be done. The student body should have all be able to voice their input on this matter.
I wasn’t denying the efficacy of the student union as a body of representatives. I was merely saying that the university administrators could actually communicate to the students directly instead of through other diffusive means. “Townhalls” aren’t the most effective means of communicating, and they already email us directly when they want to reach all students… Why not let us know what they are considering, so we can voice our opinions to our administrators and representatives?
I think there has been some serious misunderstandings going on here.
Alex, Rachel, no one is condemning the Student Union in this post. No one said there is NO student input. I simply wrote “We understand that programs do need to be cut, but we are upset with the lack of communication and consultation with students.”
The reason why we wrote this post wasn’t to bitch. It was to provide a service, we were talking about how there is no one place to go to find out what has been cut.
The budget committee is a good thing and I’m glad it exists, but there still needs to be more communication with students. Currently, rumors are flying around the school left and right about what is and what isn’t being cut. Its also not really their responsibility to publish that, but since they are the only students with easy access to that information, they should.
Any curriculum changes (like USEMs or language classes) have to be approved by the faculty senate, so faculty will have some say, though not necessarily about all of the community changes.
Also, this is the reason we elect Student Union representatives. For all of the people who say that Student Union doesn’t matter or who don’t take the 30 seconds out of their day to vote, this is why it’s important to have people that you trust to work in your best interests. It’s for when issues that DO matter come up.
Comradical, you’re right that the Student Union is not the student body, and maybe the administration should make a more concerted effort to reach out to everyone, but I’ve been to some administration sponsored “town hall” forums to gauge student opinion about different issues and they were mostly just attended by Student Union members. Maybe they should keep trying, but at what point does it become futile?
Information is being spread through the campus newspapers as well as by blogs like this and word of mouth. Voice your opinion by speaking to your senator. Everyone has at least five senators (quad/off-campus, two class year, and two senators at large) with their names and emails listed at: http://union.brandeis.edu/directory/senate
Also, every Senate meeting is open to the student body to listen to administrators or voice your concerns to the senate.
It’s admirable that the writers of this post aren’t just jumping to condemn the potential cuts, because right now something has to give. Personally I’d rather it be a merit scholarship than a need-based one, or a renovation rather than a faculty member.
The Student Union (or a student union committee) is not the student body. Nor is the student body the only group affected by the decisions being made (think faculty, staff, etc). Further, even if a student union committee were fully informed, the rest of the student body is not, and is thus unable to voice it’s concerns to the body that represents it. Such information should be spread to those affected.
What about the Budget Cuts Committee, which is helping decide these things, and on which sit students? Noam is on it; we do have some input.