Department of Economics in crosshairs of planned cut

The potential termination of the Department of Economics is the largest single cut the University of Southern Mississippi might experience because of  the budget crisis.

The issue has become the most hotly contested cut the Academic Planning Group has slated in response to the projected 7.5 million dollar academic deficit for fiscal year 2011.

But the APG has provided for appeals to the budget cuts. Each appeal must be sent to the dean of the appropriate college who will then deliver it to the President. Appeals must be posted before August 24, as the deadline for sending letters of termination to tenured professors is September first.

While some agree that the cut was a necessary evil, others believe terminating the department would not only heavily impact the College of Business but also negatively affect the USM's reputation.

The APG gave every college less than a week to make financial cuts totaling two million dollars each. For the College of Business, this meant finding 20 percent to give up.

Dean of the CoB Lance Nail said such a sum could not have been approached without cutting a program. "I was on study abroad in London when we were notified…I rallied up the troops here, the department chairs and deans, and we pulled together our strategies."

Meanwhile, the faculty of the economics department was blissfully ignorant of the impending termination. Dr. William Gunther, a member of the economics faculty, said the President seemed upbeat about the situation in late July. He said she even sent an optimistic memo to the faculty assuring them they would "all get through it together." Not two weeks later, the economics department received an email from the chair informing them of the APG's decision.

Why economics?

Dr. Denise von Herrmann, dean of the College of Arts and Letters and a member of the APG said the economics program graduated less than twenty majors over the last four years. "We felt like a million dollars to teach service courses and twenty majors was pretty expensive."

Dr. Mark Klinedinst, professor of economics, disagreed with the dean's assessment of the program. He said "They keep saying we're overstaffed, but we have approximately double the Student Credit Hours (SCH) at the university and the average faculty member at the CoB."

Gunther argued that the economics department could only be perceived as overstaffed if the number of majors was the only factor considered. Though the department has few actual graduates, economics classes are an integral part of every business degree program. Gunther also supported Klinedinst's assessment of the averages for SCH.

"Now, just because we have the highest teaching loads doesn't mean we shouldn't be closed. But it means closing us can't be the cause of the workload," he said.

Alternate motives?

Nail said when he took office as dean of the CoB, he saw an over-representation of economics classes within the international business degree program. He said he met with some faculty members one-on-one, and about eighty percent agreed that "we didn't have a true international business degree, we had an international economics degree."

Nail presented a reorganization of the CoB to the Academic and Graduate Councils in December 2008. He proposed increasing the number of departments from four to six, and separating the economics and international business programs into different departments. While the academic council did not endorse the reorganization, their approval was not necessary and Nail proceeded.

Nail said that originally, four programs were considered for termination. They ranked them based on number of majors and number of credit hours produced by each faculty member. The four lowest ranked were management information systems, fashion merchandising, tourism management, and economics.

When he became dean, Nail charged these very programs with increasing their enrollment to remain competitive. Nail said the numbers in tourism and fashion merchandising nearly doubled, and while numbers in management information have remained the same, the program has created a strategic plan to increase enrollment.

Economics degree enrollment, on the other hand, has remained stagnant. "You hate to lose a degree program that has spawned so much of our discipline…but in the face of budget cuts you have to figure out what your priorities are," Nail said.

However, department chair, George Carter asserts that the economics department did indeed take concrete steps to increasing enrollment: student economics seminars during every Wednesday, recruiting in Principles of Macroeconomics and Principles of Microeconomics courses, consideration of joint programs with philosophy and history that could create student interest and discussion on building the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) economics major.

Impact on students, accreditation, and tenure at USM

For students enrolled as current economic majors, Nail has pledged complete support in their continuation of studies. Provost Bob Lyman said, "What is certain is that we have an absolute commitment to pushing those students [whose majors are being cut] through." No new students will have the option of declaring an economics major, and plans are in effect to retain economic classes within the CoB.

Nail said, "We have other economists on campus and we have faculty here who have terminal degrees in it. From an accreditation viewpoint, we have a lot of people who could teach it."

Accreditation of the CoB and university, according to Jerry Trapnell, Executive Vice President & Chief Accreditation Officer at AACSB International, would not be affected. However, some worry about the reputation of the university.