Faculty budget one step away
President Dorothy Leland said the funds are used to help promote the mission of Georgia’s only public liberal arts university.
“Part of what our mission is about is having enough faculty so that most of our classes aren’t huge ones, and also so that our faculty can participate in what I like to call learning beyond the classroom opportunities,” Leland said. “So this funding has supported or currently supports 21 faculty positions.”
The special funding initiative is actually part of the state’s own budget and has been since 2004. This year’s funding faced many challenges in both chambers of the General Assembly due to low state revenue.
Lawmakers were forced to try and cut billions of dollars from the state’s budget-a process that caused difficult choices to be made.
One victim of budget reduction was GCSU’s own Ennis Hall. Ennis Hall, currently the home of the GIVE center, was on the budget to be renovated and the new home of the art department, but the General Assembly chose not to fund the renovation.
The art department is currently scattered in old houses on the edge of campus. According to Leland, the current facilities are “really inadequate to meet the instructional needs of the department of art.”
The move would unify the art offices and classrooms and provide more appropriate facilities for the students.
Leland feels that the Assembly chose the initiative over Ennis Hall’s renovation based on the university’s more immediate needs.
“I think that this very tight budget year, and a decision was made that what is most important to Georgia College right now is to not lose that strategic funding initiative money,” Leland said.
Bill Fisher, chair of the art department, said the art department fully supported preventing any job loss, even if it meant losing the Ennis Hall funding.
“The art department let President Leland know that we were in total support,” Fisher said. “The saving of jobs comes first.”
Despite setbacks, the plans to renovate Ennis Hall are still in the works for next year.
Leland remains optimistic about Ennis Hall’s future.
“I’m hoping to be able to get money to continue the planning for Ennis hall and do the completion of architectural drawings so that when it gets funded next year that we’ll be ready as soon as the money comes in to begin construction,” Leland said.
Art students are already excited about the future move of the department.
“It’ll be nice to have a new building because the old building has some spots that are a little worrisome,” freshman Sara Rincon said.
The Ennis Hall renovation request and special funding initiative come during a time in which GCSU’s budget is being cut. The latest estimate is a 12.3 percent reduction in next year’s budget.
The university has made adjustments to cope with the upcoming budget decrease.
Printing costs have been a main focus for saving money. Changing three-colored pamphlets and fliers to two-colored or even black and white has helped reduce costs. Putting resources, like academic catalogs, online further reduced the amount spent on printing.
Travel and conference trips have also been cut to further save funds.
The university has even eliminated 11 administrative positions to reduce budget strains.
“All of us who lost those positions are adding the responsibilities that were under them to our jobs,” Leland said. “We’re working harder, longer and hopefully smarter as a result.”
Students feel that the positions kept once the initiative passes would be beneficial to the university.
“We already have a staff shortage with the increase of students and mandatory classes, so I believe the funding is appropriate,” freshman Emily Thompson said.
“It’s a good thing to have more teachers stay so that students can get the teachers and classes they need,” sophomore Sarah Mann said.
Other students were more focused on the initiative’s effect on their own financial realities.
“(The initiative passing) is great I think, but I just hope I don’t have to pay an extra $100,” junior Will Jones said.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Apr 10 2009. Filed under News.
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