Joann Groff
News Editor
Graham Shea / Asst. Photo
Dean Baird addresses
students during September’s
open forum
Seaver Dean David Baird has sent his official budget cut recommendations to the provost, and the document reflects something many members of the Pepperdine community didn’t expect to see — revisions.
In February, Baird announced that $1.6 million would be collected from the college by reviewing the efficiency of the programs on campus. Of that money, $1 million will go to the University for a computer system and a retiree health benefits package, and $600,000 is to be reallocated within Seaver, enriching some of the existing programs and creating new ones.
The reaction from current students and alumni has been mostly negative, as uncertainty lingers over how the changes will affect their education and degrees. Some changes have started to quell the resistance against the effort.
One of the most controversial cuts was the recommended reduction of the public relations and advertising majors to minors. According to Dr. Bob Chandler, chair of the Communication Division, all of that has changed.
Some classes will be condensed, as there were a lot of repeated projects, films and guest speakers, Chandler said. Instead of nine PR classes, there may only be four or five, but other classes, perhaps from communication, print journalism or broadcast journalism areas, will make up part of the major, he said.
“We have a committee that’s working on this, talking to students and to professionals and working to tighten up that major, avoid duplication and make it rigorous,” Chandler said. “It’s going to be a better major, still serving both students and alumni. I honestly feel deep in my heart that we are going to have an exceptional product.
“At the end of the day,” Chandler added, “there may be four classes instead of nine with the letters PR in front of it — you can call that reduction. But we are going to increase the content … there is some concern about which classes will be combined — this doesn’t mean this is going to make everyone happy. It will be different, better.”
Advertising will go through a lighter process, perhaps condensing or bringing in one or two classes.
There is still a plan to incorporate an integrated marketing and communication major, but Chandler insisted it would not replace the PR and advertising programs.
Baird has bowed out of the process.
“How it’s going to sort itself out, that’s up to the division’s perspective what they are going to do,” Baird said. “There are students and alumni and professionals involved, and reviewing what’s going to happen. It’s under very serious study, and if it turns out we end up continuing with the status quo, at least we would be making that decision based upon data.”
Another noticeable change is the placement of the debate team. Students and faculty were disturbed to see the dean had decided to halt funding for the team, despite the notoriety it has earned by excelling at competitions around the nation.
“The dean said that the debate team doesn’t affect enough people,” said junior Blaine LaBron in a previous issue of the Graphic. “It is one of the most well-respected (programs) on campus, and Pepperdine has done a lot with it. This year we are getting even more involved in the school, we are doing a radio broadcast and a public debate. It’s sad to me that the dean would want to cut that for no reason.”
The new matrix shows the forensics program as a candidate planned to be “retained at a higher level of support,” which Baird said was “a consequence of additional information and a willingness to enlarge the number of students that are impacted by the program — not only those involved in it, but others that can benefit from what’s going on with that.”
Kylie Robertson, assistant director of forensics, said she is very excited about the changes.
“There’s been a lot of support in the Communication division; Dr. Chandler and a lot of professors and the students and all of the articles — everyone’s been really great about it,” Robertson said. “It’s a blessing because the program is a lot different from the one last year. We have done a lot of different things to improve the program, like expanding to do the individual events competition. It’s made the club more accessible to a lot of different people.
“Maybe in the history of the team, it’s been a bit obscure as far as who they were and what they did,” Robertson added. “We are not a little tiny club hiding in the CCB, we are branching out, and trying to do the best we can.”
Another saved program is Currents magazine, which will maintain its original budget as opposed to losing funding. Baird said he is confident that the program will become stronger.
Dr. Ken Waters, Currents advisor and Communication professor, said he is happy with the decision.
“I’m glad that Pepperdine recognized that having a student magazine is an imperative for a successful print journalism program,” Waters said. “It is an attraction to students … to have the experience to be involved in the program. We have challenges ahead of us, like increasing our readership, and advertising.”
There are some aspects of the original matrix that will remain unchanged. The Writing Center, for example, has been removed from the document completely, and is being considered a part of the Junior Writing Portfolio.
Also, international business will be eliminated as a major.
“The division had strong reservations about having a major other than business administration in a liberal arts school,” Baird said. “It’s a conversation going on with the business faculty. When I undertook this project, I was aware of reservations of faculty for a finance major, a marketing major, an international business major rather than a general business administration degree with an emphasis in one of these areas.”
All of the general education classes are still scheduled to be converted to a lecture-hall format, likely to be held in Elkins, with more than 100 students per section.
“My hope is that we’ve gone through this agonizing process, and now we can go beyond it, see it as a useful exercise,” Baird said. “It is legitimate to ask questions about how we are we doing in terms of numbers and costs. It was a sober experience in accountability and justification — none of us like to do that. It was relatively unsettling, but we are better for having asked these questions.
“We have direction on things we’d like to emphasize,” Baird added, “and now its time to do that.”
10-28-2004