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Students and faculty have been organizing their response in preparation for today’s public information forum on the recently released proposal for restructuring the university’s academic offerings.
The Academic Program Prioritization Working Group’s interim report suggests eliminating 16 majors — though not necessarily eliminating the classes associated with them — and 80 faculty to save more than $12 million between 2011 and 2014.
The End of Academic Apathy Protest, as the event is called, was started on Facebook by second-year romance languages student Kalie Hess to encourage students to attend the forum.
“Initially, I wanted people to show up,” Hess said. Then, the Facebook event swelled to more than 400 confirmed attendees in just three days.
Sunday, Hess and others made roughly a dozen signs. Hess said she plans to have picketers outside the Wells Conference Center, where the forum will be held, for the entire length of the forum.
She wouldn’t typify the response by students, saying: “It’s affecting a lot of people in different ways, so they’re responding in a lot of different ways.” But, she added, “People are generally very surprised by the cuts the university is trying to make.”
In a APPWG conference folder on the FirstClass e-mail system, community members wrote about their experiences in departments with proposed cuts. Some were faculty who questioned the rationale for cutting majors, such as Tina Passman, an associate professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Classics, who wrote: “What is the economic value of a language? What is the economic value of a culture? What is the economic value of ‘feeling at home’ in the place you inhabit? Perhaps it is much the same as the economic value of clean air and water, of security within your neighborhood, of knowing you are valued for who you are.”
Others were alumni, sharing why their degree was important to them. Ted Nokes, an alumnus of UMaine and director of bands for MSAD 46 — which includes Dexter — wrote that his son was currently an undergraduate student majoring in music performance.
“I know he will be allowed to finish under the time line for implementation, but the problem reaches into the future. As a band director, I would never recommend to any student that they attend a school for their music education degree if that school did not also offer the opportunity of performance degree,” Nokes wrote.
After the report was released, Beth Wiemann, chair of the music department, sent an e-mail to music students asking them to attend the forum or write to administrators.
“These are still only suggested cuts. But, we do need to argue our case to keep the programs, and make the case compelling,” Wiemann wrote in her e-mail.
Bangor Daily News