ALEX BUCKNAM
Asst. News Editor
ABIGAIL JACOBSON
News Editor
DAN QUAGLIANA
Managing Editor
Photo by JEAN CESTARO | Staff Photographer
In December of 2023, Fredonia President Stephen Kolison Jr. announced plans to discontinue 13 majors across the university’s curriculum. Discontinued majors include philosophy, Spanish and photography.
All 13 majors were officially discontinued by the administration on March 18.
For the duration of the deactivation process, Kolison and Executive Vice President and Provost Dr. David Starrett assured students multiple times that the minors associated with the discontinued majors would remain, and that students would continue to be able to enroll in those programs.
Additionally, many students were of the opinion that the majors in question were not framed as though they were immediately being eliminated, but rather that they would be chosen from a list of possible programs.
Every program on the initial list was discontinued.
In an email to students whose majors were eventually cut, Starrett said, “After careful consideration and utilizing data-driven evidence, the Provost’s Office has identified 13 programs, including your current major, that have been recommended for discontinuation in the future.”
In a subsequent email sent out by Starrett to all students, faculty and staff announcing the official discontinuation of those majors on March 18, it was stated that “we will keep associated minors.”
At the first University Senate meeting this semester, on Sept. 9, the creation of a “Joint Task Force on Academic Minors” was voted on and approved.
The charge of this new task force reads as follows: “The charge of the Joint Task Force on Academic Minors is to contribute to SUNY Fredonia’s Roadmap to Financial Sustainability by proposing criteria for academic minors not connected to a current major to be considered for deactivation to the Provost and Executive Committee by October 31, 2024.”
In simpler language, this committee was given a list of 15 minors. From this list, they can develop criteria to select the elimination of some of them. The language employed in the original potential major discontinuation email last Fall is the same language that is being used to describe the list of minors that was sent to Senate recently.
It is also important to note that, as stated by the proposal sent to Senate, the purpose of this committee is to allow faculty to have input on the creation of the criteria from which to-be-deactivated minors will be selected. Faculty did not have input on this process regarding the discontinued majors last year.
The members of the committee are:
- Bruce Simon, co-chair
- David Stringham, co-chair
- Jennifer Hildebrand
- Amy Marshall
- Peter Reinelt
- Scott Saunders
The list of potential minors to be cut includes:
- African American studies
- Art history
- Arts administration
- Athletic coaching
- Film studies
- French
- Latinx studies
- MultiEthnic studies
- Museum studies
- Native American studies
- Philosophy
- Public health
- School & counseling psychology
- Sociology
- Spanish
While some of these minors are connected to the majors discontinued last Spring, some never had a corresponding major to begin with.
With the potential elimination of certain minority studies, SUNY Fredonia is in danger of being unable to teach courses in those disciplines.
The initial major program cuts have led to the university issuing retrenchments to three professors.
A retrenchment is “the termination of the employment of any academic or professional employee during any appointment, other than a temporary appointment which may be terminated at any time, as a result of financial exigency, reallocation of resources, reorganization of degree or curriculum offerings or requirements,” according to an email United University Professions (UUP) sent out to all faculty and staff on Sept. 19 at 3:13 p.m.
UUP is the union that represents professional faculty and staff on campus.
Retrenchment notices were issued on Sept. 13 to Peter Tucker, a sculpture professor, Stephen Komp, a photography professor and Michele Bernatz, an art history professor.
According to an email from the Visual Arts and New Media Department, Tucker’s last semester will be Spring 2025. Komp’s last semester will be Fall 2027. As stated, Bernatz was issued a letter of retrenchment, but already planned on retiring at the end of this year.
When news spread about the retrenchments and possible minor cuts, students took action.
On Sept. 19 at 3:30 p.m., Students for Fredonia (SFF) held a protest on the grass between Mason Hall and Reed Library. Student protestors walked around campus, shouting “Pay for staff not for buildings” and “Peter Tucker, Peter Tucker.”
Students carried signs, saying “I’m a budget cut?” to “Stop demanding respect for a system disrespecting us.” Other signs included, “You cannot put students first if you put teachers last,” “Education is a public good[,] not a business” and “Where’s the loop??? Inform your students.”
The protest ended up stopping at the amphitheater by Mason and McEwen Halls. Here, 5 speeches were given.
Rebekah Gerace, the public relations and social media manager for SFF, began the speeches by talking about some rules and safety. She mentioned how the location of the protest was chosen because it was considered a protest area. All of this information was taken from the campus’s freedom of expression statement.
She also mentioned that protests must not interfere with university functions such as a student going to class. After mentioning all the safety rules and guidelines, she passed it to Jasmine Johnson, the vice president of SFF.
Johnson went on to talk about how she thinks the administration is incapable of running this institution.
“We were promised a rounded and quality education,” Johnson said. “But since I have been here, they have done nothing but cut corner after corner with no regard to faculty members or the students or the ecosystem, with no regard for the faculty members or students caught in the crossfire.
“They have shamelessly broken their promise to involve student and faculty voices in their decisions.”
According to Johnson, these decisions are “an attack on [the] liberal arts and humanities.”
“They have cut our faculty but we have yet to see administrators be cut,” Johnson said. “When the doors close on this institution, we will know who to blame – and it’s the administration.”
Benjamin Evans, a co-founder of SFF, also gave a speech. In his speech, they mentioned how he was tired of going to University Senate meetings and seeing the leaders of SUNY Fredonia give under-researched reports at every meeting.
“There are so many systemic issues that we need to tackle, and I may be tired, [but] there’s nothing that students know how to do better than to [be] tired [and keep] working [anyway],” Evans said. “That’s a hard lesson I’ve had to learn, but that’s okay, because I’ve also learned to rely on … other students.”
Mason Fuller, the president of SFF, mentioned in their speech how they were told at the last University Senate meeting that minors may be cut. On Tuesday, Sept. 17, they were told three professors were losing their positions.
“The only people that aren’t at the whim of these cuts are the administrators,” Fuller said. “We are the people that have to deal with their decisions, not them.”
Dakota Richter, the president of the Student Association (SA), mentioned in his speech that he “[thinks] the student voice is the most important thing when these types of things occur.”
One of Richter’s duties as president of SA is to lead student advocacy. According to Richter, SA has been working tirelessly to advocate on behalf of students and faculty on the SUNY Fredonia campus.
“Trust me, they have been hearing [the name] Fredonia every time I go to Albany,” he said.
Richter mentioned how students and professors are the trains of this institution and the administration is the tracks. “Without the train, there is no need for tracks.”
Tucker was at the protest and gave a response to the students and faculty protesting.
“All I want to say, because I’m about to cry, is that you guys are fucking awesome,” he said.
According to Fuller, about 200 people, mainly freshmen, attended this protest.
“A lot of them heard about everything that was happening when they came in and they kind of thought that it was like all over, for lack of a better word,” Fuller said.
Early in the day, around 11 a.m., Fuller met with Mark Suida, the director of Campus Life, and Gordon Carpenter, the chief of University Police (UP). In this meeting, they wanted to make sure everything was cleared for the protest to happen.
When Fuller had left the meeting, they received a screenshot of a YikYak post from one of their friends.
In the YikYak post, someone wrote, “Hope y[’]all can come to the protest today!!!” A comment below this post wrote, “I’m taking my tool wit[h] me. See y[’]all there.” Someone responded with, “Tool??” The original commenter responded, “For my safety. I got a conceal [to carry], these things can get out of hand.”
Fuller took action and messaged the SFF E-board group chat. According to Fuller, the executive board of SFF felt like “crisis operatives.” They were trying to figure out how to deal with this and, “We didn’t want people to panic because it was an important message, and we didn’t want people to not come because they felt unsafe, because that’s not what we’re trying to create.”
According to Fuller, Carpenter didn’t think it was a real threat. However, it was still an active investigation at the time of his conversation with Fuller and during the protest as a whole.
University Police decided to have uniformed officers attend the protest, so that if anything happened, they could “shut it down immediately and get everyone to safety.”
This was a decision made by both SFF and UP to keep this rumor from making its way to people and causing panic. According to Carpenter, this rumor did not meet any of the guidelines to release an announcement. He did mention how he “greatly [appreciates] the communication” with SFF about this rumor.
As of Sept. 27, this is still an ongoing investigation.
“Students for Fredonia is [a support system, and that’s what we are] here for, and especially with the new Student Association staff…we are pushing for students’ voices to be heard,” Fuller said during the protest.
“Don’t lose hope,” they continued. “It’s really daunting and it’s really scary, and college … is terrifying, but professors love working here, and they’re in a rough spot [just] as much as we are. People want you to thrive and people want you to do well here … Some people aren’t giving us the tools to do that.”
SFF will be coordinating some other events in the near future.