Spring Break
Faculty faces job cuts amid proposed funding slash
Communications dept. to reduce programs
Bryan Shiele
Issue date: 4/10/09 Section: News
When Beth Meyers-Bass and 11 other adjunct faculty members in the Communication Studies Department heard that the university's budget could be chopped by $13.1 million following Gov. Bill Ritter's recommendation, they offered to take a 25 percent pay cut to keep their jobs.
Now they are looking to lose much more in lieu of last week's announcement that the Joint Budget Committee, the group in charge of writing the annual appropriations bill, recommended the state triple its higher education slashes to $300 million.
"I'm expecting all of us to be cut if this goes through," Chani Marchiselli, an adjunct faculty member in the Communication Studies Department, said.
Meyers-Bass says she is even looking at the possibility of applying for jobs at Starbucks or Target this summer.
"I have three kids and a mortgage to pay," Meyers-Bass said. "I mean there isn't much I can do."
Some adjunct faculty said that the department and university are not to blame, saying the fault lies with Colorado's budget process.
"Our communication department has always supported our special instructors," Marchiselli said. "I love this university, it's the legislature's fault."
Citing Colorado's rank as 49th in the nation in higher education funding, Marchiselli added that "CSU should be funded so much better, they [the legislature] have been gouging us for awhile."
Communication Studies Department Chair Sue Pendell says the department prepared budget cuts of 2.5, 5 and 10 percent after hearing of Ritter's initial recommendation to cut $100 million from higher education funding.
"If the legislature passes this, that 10 percent just wouldn't be enough," Pendell said. "Most of our budget is due to salaries, and there would be job cuts."
"I don't feel very good about it at all, but there would be nothing I could do," she said.
In addition to laying off the adjunct faculty members, the proposed budget cuts will have a significant trickle down effect on the entire department Greg Dickinson, an associate professor and director of graduate studies at the Communication Studies Department, said.
Now they are looking to lose much more in lieu of last week's announcement that the Joint Budget Committee, the group in charge of writing the annual appropriations bill, recommended the state triple its higher education slashes to $300 million.
"I'm expecting all of us to be cut if this goes through," Chani Marchiselli, an adjunct faculty member in the Communication Studies Department, said.
Meyers-Bass says she is even looking at the possibility of applying for jobs at Starbucks or Target this summer.
"I have three kids and a mortgage to pay," Meyers-Bass said. "I mean there isn't much I can do."
Some adjunct faculty said that the department and university are not to blame, saying the fault lies with Colorado's budget process.
"Our communication department has always supported our special instructors," Marchiselli said. "I love this university, it's the legislature's fault."
Citing Colorado's rank as 49th in the nation in higher education funding, Marchiselli added that "CSU should be funded so much better, they [the legislature] have been gouging us for awhile."
Communication Studies Department Chair Sue Pendell says the department prepared budget cuts of 2.5, 5 and 10 percent after hearing of Ritter's initial recommendation to cut $100 million from higher education funding.
"If the legislature passes this, that 10 percent just wouldn't be enough," Pendell said. "Most of our budget is due to salaries, and there would be job cuts."
"I don't feel very good about it at all, but there would be nothing I could do," she said.
In addition to laying off the adjunct faculty members, the proposed budget cuts will have a significant trickle down effect on the entire department Greg Dickinson, an associate professor and director of graduate studies at the Communication Studies Department, said.
Be the first to comment on this story