Business college deals with budget cuts
Some CSU College of Business students are getting a lesson in
economics this year: when revenues fall, costs must be cut.
The College of Business budget was reduced by $619,560 for this
year. The cuts were a result of decreased state funding to public
universities across Colorado.
State funding to CSU fell 27 percent, $34.2 million, a result of
the state’s revenue problems associated with a slow economy. The
decreases have led to larger class sizes and reduced availability
of classes, according to a university news release. The university
as a whole eliminated 52 full-time faculty positions and 220 staff
positions.
The finance department of the College of Business lost one
faculty member because of the cuts. Timothy Gallagher, chair of the
finance department, said the most significant change in his
department was the merging of four sections of a freshman finance
class into one section. The four separate sections of 90 students
were combined into one section of 360 students.
“We had 50 or 60 students who wouldn’t graduate on time because
they couldn’t get the classes they needed,” Gallagher said. By
combining the four sections into one, Gallagher was able to free up
enough faculty to provide the seniors the classes they needed to
graduate on time.
The College of Business already had the highest
student-to-faculty ratio in the university, said O.C. Ferrell,
chair of the marketing department. Ferrell said this made the
college better prepared to handle the larger class sizes that some
colleges across the university are facing.
“I haven’t noticed any difference from last year,” said Kelli
Howard, a marketing sophomore.
The management department did not lose any faculty as a direct
result of budget cuts but classes are more crowded, said Paul
Mallette, the interim chair of the department.
Mallette said smaller classes are better but he said he believes
students are still getting a quality education.
“We’ve got to work together,” Mallette said, adding that he
believed the situation was as bad as it would get and was bound to
get better.
Ashley Williams, a freshman business administration student,
said she had not experienced any problems registering for
classes.
CSU President Larry Penley has floated several proposals to
increase funding to the university. One of his ideas is a
differential tuition plan through which students in high-demand
majors would pay more than students in other majors, according to a
copy of the proposal.
Under Penley’s plan, business majors would pay an extra $450 per
academic year. Engineering and computer science majors would also
pay extra, with each paying an additional $225 per year.
“I think it is an excellent idea,” Ferrell said. “People need to
remember a basic fact. You get what you pay for.”
Ferrell said that he feels sometimes students do not fully
appreciate the value of the education they receive at CSU. Ferrell
said that an extra $450 dollars a year, when compared with the
potential earning power and quality of life a CSU degree provides,
is minimal.
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