Religion not the only program getting cut

Saturday the Hattiesburg American runs a paper talking how the Religion department got a horrible blow. Today, I read again all about the Religion department and once again on the front page. Not that I am unsympathetic to the program, but it was not the only department to get cut. Yes, there were other programs, but had you noticed in the email sent by President Saunders you would have notice another department. The Technology Education Department in McLemore was a causality too.

I am a Business Technology Education Major with an uncertain future in front of me. I am told to be assured that I will be graduating in my degree, but just like many of my fellow students I can take little comfort in it. There may not be a lot of undergrads in our department compared to Religion, but we still count. Just like the Religion Department, our program does bring in more than it takes. We also have now had to turn away potential students because of these cuts. Maybe you notice the irony in a college that started as a teacher's college has cut education liscensure programs.

In addition to my program, business major students could have an issue. Maybe they will be moving some of the professors into the College of Business, but for students who still need to take BTE 380 Organizational Communication they may have some difficulty. The class is "study of communication in business organizations and the application of theory and methodology with emphasis on writing letters and reports." Many seniors who have put it off may find the class and times offered full because of these budget cuts.

Other programs cut in the Technology Education Department was Instructional Technology and Office Administration. In addition, not only undergrads were effected. There are about 10 Master's students and almost 20 P.H.D program students who may become additional budget cut casualties. Some of these students are also Grad Assistants in the department and teach some of the lower classes.

My plan and a few of my other fellow students within my major had planned on coming back to USM for our Masters. Now that will not be possible. These cuts are not going to make many future Alumni happy or willing to help the school.Instead of the school using a donation for a wall or placing a temporary $7,000 fence around the new Century Park dorms so students wont illegal cross the road (note that wasn't done for Elam Arms), they could use the money for something else: paying instructors and keeping programs.

Another aspect to be considered is the students who have access to the labs because the new Mac Lab will be gone too. A lab that was paid out of department money not the school's and will probably have to be given away to other departments on campus.

Some of us may not have as strong a voice as the Religion and Philosophy department, but we still have a voice and should be heard.

Sincerely,

Sarah E. Necaise

BTE Major