Budget cuts and growing deficits have taken away from the quality of performance at various levels of the state and federal level. Our university has not been exempt from these issues. Hiring and pay freezes have hurt some departments more than others.
Our front-page story this week was about the registrar’s office allowing students with as little as 95 credits to walk at graduation. They were understaffed. It was impossible for their office to read every request and review it.
The blame can’t be placed on them. It would be easy for our staff to be up in arms against that department, but that wouldn’t be looking at the bigger issue. This is a perfect example of why funding cuts don’t work. Understaffed administrations don’t operate like they should.
While our school and state legislature understand the need for new buildings to allow their students and faculty to have an enhanced learning experience, they seem to forget that our administrators here are responsible for making sure than things run smoothly around campus.
An unforeseen problem arose from the registrar’s office not being able to hire more staff. This was a problem that not many people saw. Are there other issues hiding out there somewhere?
Does the financial aid office need more people to help process requests? What about the billing offices? Do we struggle to keep facilities up to date and in working order?
If being understaffed means that you’re going to let students walk who are not within the guidelines, does that open the door for admissions to stop examining potential students’ credentials? One would certainly hope not, but the point remains that it is entirely possible with a weakened personnel.
We are part of the Connecticut State University System, or CSUS, which includes Eastern, Southern, Western Connecticut State University and ourselves. As of last semester the CSUS system is now part of the CT Board of Regents for Higher Education. This system contains 17 schools, which includes the community schools and Charter Oak State College.
If we are now operating under such a large umbrella, with similar budget and staffing issues, it is inevitable that there are other faults in the system around the state. The CSUS has taken great strides in past decade to raise its level of education. Our school, and sister schools, are viewed as some of the top institutions in New England for higher education.
It’s problems like this, which will be amplified if they are a commonplace around the system, that will set us back a step from where we’ve worked to get to. It’s communal of all the universities around the state to want to improve their standings. Something like this does quite the opposite.
There are always issues with cutting and quality, but sometimes these situations cannot be avoided.
What can be done? Faculty and administration are always begging for less budget cuts. They’ve already lifted the hiring freeze at the universities. The only thing that can be done will relate to the next time we encounter a crisis like we did during the 2009-10 fiscal year.
Administration, and that includes any decision making governing body in our system, need to keep an eye on problem areas. Instead of having a surplus of assistants in Davidson to help our executives do their necessary tasks, we can move those individuals to let them assist in other administrative departments.
Budget cuts will always be a reality. Instead of letting them debilitate our necessary departments, lets learn how to adapt and stay ahead of areas of weakness. We need to remember to watch out for where they will affect us to avoid taking steps back.
