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.