James Riswick
Associate Editor
Nothing seems to get people all riled up more than having their money taken away. And here at Pepperdine, quite a lot of money is taken from us every day, from our high living costs to the Caf’s insanely expensive little boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
By now, most of you have hopefully heard of the extensive budget reallocation process that has been going on for the better part of a year here at our fine Seaver College. In an effort to pay for a new computer system and retiree health benefits, Seaver Dean David Baird announced in the spring that $1.6 million would be “reallocated” from various parts of the Seaver operating budget to pay for these new expenditures. As was reported in the Graphic last week, the dean’s prioritization recommendations include the loss of several majors and programs, while others would be enriched.
In simpler terms: International Business majors, take a hike; Sports Medicine folks, keep on truckin’ and here’s a few new lab coats.
In total, Advertising, Public Relations, International Business, several fine arts majors, German, P.E. and Natural Science would be eliminated either entirely, or in the case of Advertising and P.R., reduced to minors. Furthermore, the Writing Center and successful debate team would be cut, along with Currents magazine and the CHADO “Way of the Tea” class.
Worst of all, a significant number of general education classes, such as psychology, sociology, political science, math, English and history would now be taught in Elkins Auditorium with 150 or more students. Of course, religion G.E.’s will be staying with their mostly small-class format, not that anyone’s surprised to hear that.
People come to Pepperdine specifically because of small class sizes. My two humanities classes in Elkins were by far some of the worst I have taken in three-plus years at Pepperdine – and I’m sure I’m not alone in this sentiment. They are highly impersonal, highly uninvolved and students are made to feel like sprockets being fed through an uncaring educational machine.
Baird said “it would be too bad if a freshman ended up with six large classes, but four or five classes in Elkins during a college career does not seem too bad to me.”
Well perhaps during a college career at UCLA or the University of Michigan with tens of thousands of students in attendance. Small classes are one of Pepperdine’s strongest selling points – I know I wouldn’t have come here with the proposed amount of required Elkins G.E.’s. Students already take a rather unattractive amount of general education classes, and if I’m forced to sit through English, Math 102 and Political Science just to name a few, I expect personal attention, not Elkins, at Pepperdine.
When I arrived here in 2001, we were joyously No. 47 on the U.S. News national college ranking – our highest spot ever. Last year we dipped to No. 51 and this year we’re No. 52. Whether the competition is getting better or we’re getting worse can be debated. But with the loss of majors, increased class sizes, an unwaveringly conservative administration, more students and higher tuition, I find it unlikely that we’ll be re-cracking the top 50 any time soon. Meanwhile, for those students whose majors are on the chopping block, their degrees will be depreciating faster than a two-year-old Hyundai.
Which brings us to that little doodle you see majestically perched above this article. As you may have noticed, Smothers Theatre is undergoing a nice little renovation. Let’s just put aside the fact that the construction makes getting to the CAC from the TCC only possible with a GPS tracking system or a Sherpa. The fact of the matter is, renovating a facility that was miles from being old and decrepit at a time when the school is being forced to cut majors and successful programs looks absolutely awful. Of course the money being put into the Smothers project and any other beautification projects don’t come from the same budget that is being affected by the reprioritization. But it just looks really, really bad. It’s the equivalent of a city cutting back municipal services like police or garbage pick up while dumping huge sums of money into a new Major League Baseball stadium — not that that ever happens. Even if the Smothers renovation was absolutely necessary, I still question the timing of such a project.
Maybe some of the cuts are a good idea. Having read many poorly written public relations releases in my day, I can certainly say that P.R. people could probably benefit more from a journalism degree with a P.R. minor. Also, putting more money into broadcast and theater are signs that the University does respect the more creative educational endeavors.
However, students only lose with cuts to Speech 180 and losing resources like the Writing Center. These are the types of things that really prepare students for the supposed real world – and I will say this, far more so than learning about the Old Testament in untouched religion classes.
I would love to offer a long list of solutions, but sadly I cannot. If cuts were needed to maintain the fiscal responsibility of the University, then of course, things had to go. Who knows, maybe all these proposed cuts won’t be put through, but chances are they will. Our university’s reputation is at stake here, and I believe that it is sinking. I know if journalism and the Graphic were being cut, I would probably be rallying my brethren, waving flags and marching on the TAC preparing to throw up the barricades in a “Les Miserables”-like effort to save my program. Pepperdine will survive these cuts and even look a little prettier in the process thanks to Smothers. But in the end, it won’t be the same university afterward, and that’s a bad thing.
09-09-2004