By KATIE KLIMACEK
Staff Writer
This past Friday, The College of Saint Rose made the decision to cut 23 faculty members in the face of a $9 million debt and looming budget constraints. Needless to say, the college doesn’t have the best spending habits. It has been made clear over the past few weeks, that both faculty and staff would be fired in order to combat the deficit of the school. Students have been on the edge of their seats this past week awaiting the list of programs cut to see if their major was still going to be relevant after this year.
The wait was over on Friday, Dec. 11th when at 2:12 pm, President Stefanco sent out an email to the student body, alerting them as to which programs will no longer be offered at the college. After seeing the list, it certainly feels like practically every program was cut. Upon further review, I was relieved to see that despite the fact that the College is gravely in debt, Saint Rose has maintained its fight against young adulthood obesity by keeping physical fitness as part of its roster.
It’s comforting to know that our college is making sure that our physical education is up to par. I don’t know what I would have done if Intro to Clowning was cut. I’m glad that the college wants its students to maintain their sense of humor during this ever so “slightly” depressing time. I might not be able tell you about the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire after graduating from Saint Rose, but I will be able to to make you smile with my ability to squirt seltzer water out of my flower lapel. One thing is for sure, knowing how to make a variety of balloon animals will come quite in handy when my diploma is no longer valid and I have to take up clowning in order to pay my bills.
This time of year is truly the season of giving. Forget Women’s Studies, I would be furious if the college no longer offered Jazz Dance, because it’s not like I can go anywhere else to learn about that (insert sarcastic tone here).Yeah, so, there is this thing called Youtube where I can search “How to Jazz Dance,” and without even paying a dime I can learn how to do the best darn jazz square you’ve ever seen this side of the Mississippi.
I can’t say for sure if these classes are being offered next semester due to students already having their spring semester planned, but don’t you think that cutting gym classes could have helped to maintain some of the integrity of the school? Or maybe would have helped to keep some tenured professors around? Let’s be honest, there is probably all of, what, five students who are actually excited about having to take two credits of gym. When I hear liberal arts, surprisingly, physical education is not the first thing that comes to mind. Shocker, I know.
At this point I would normally suggest that some administrators take an economics or business class to help with learning what the value of a dollar is, but those programs are getting cut, so I guess they’re out of luck.
To wrap up my sarcastic article, I would like to leave you with this. I understand that President Stefanco is not to blame for the current financial turmoil the school is in, and that things had to be cut in order to prevent the school from dissolving completely. But keeping courses that students could go out in their free time and do, or even go to the local recreation center to participate in, is honestly a foolish move.
We all want to love Saint Rose and the people who make our education possible, but when we see that administrators are still getting paid and gym classes remain over education classes, it makes it a lot harder to love and respect the school we once knew.
