arts cuts profoundly annoying

Editor:

I am writing in response to the cuts to the Political Studies department. As you know, the university administration has decided to cut the tenure track position that was to replace Dr. B. Bartmann in his retirement. The Administration, in the past, has offered a replacement ten month teaching contract; this time the administration did not even do that. With the financial times troubling the world currently, I can understand their position and I would fully expect the university to make due with an increase in sessional lecturers to pick up the slack. In this case, the university did not even meet my expectations—sessionals have been cut back.

The actions of the university administration have left the department with only three professors, one short of its previous compliment and leaving it unable to adequately teach the discipline. What is forgotten in the slalom to a balanced budget is the first responsibility of a university. Every Canadian has the right of Good Government, and rights entail duties. It is the requisite of a good society for a good government, and the key to a good society is a well educated population. The university has a duty to educate those who enter its walls, and I am at loss to see how cutting a department's resources is achieving this goal.

There are solutions to this problem, I empathize with the position of the university, money is tight currently, and everyone has to tighten their belts, but it is in this case that the university must find additional sources of funding, the annual collection campaign seems to do well for itself. New buildings, some even gilded in copper, have popped up on campus. Perhaps if the university spent less money on buildings and more on funding for each department (not each faculty) then things wouldn't be so bad.

UPEI's ranking, according to Macleans, has risen one place since last years rankings. This is an admirable trait, but surely with the cuts to departments across the board, and a weakening in the course offerings at the university such a place cannot be maintained.

The money has to come from somewhere, this I do understand. Between the massive donations that UPEI gets every year and the revenue from the provincial government, the university should be able to pay its staff to teach its students. If this means that the university runs at a loss for a few years, then so be it. The education of the students comes first and foremost. That is the duty of a university; to teach.

Mike Dunn