Alex Bucknam
Managing Editor
Interim Provost Dr. Judith Horowitz. Photo via fredonia.edu.
I’m writing this article on Feb. 23, the last update the general student body received from Interim Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs Judith Horowitz relating to program cuts was from November.
A lot of students are confused about where we are with program cuts.
As a journalist and managing editor of a newspaper, I wish I had the answers and a full story to give the public, but I’m equally as lost.
The last time I personally had a conversation with Dr. Horowitz was on Dec. 5.
During this brief exchange, I asked her if the last timeline she sent out was still up to date, referring to her Oct. 31 update.
I received a simple answer: “No.”
“We’re waiting on the updated models to be completed,” she stated. “Once they’re sent to faculty, I’ll figure out new dates and distribute them.”
I will give the interim provost some credit. She justified this by explaining that instead of revising the dates every time there’s a speed bump with Finance and Administration, they wait for the models to be in the hands of faculty before coming up with a new timeline.
In all honesty, this made sense, but I question why the student body wasn’t made aware of this plan.
I mean, these are our majors. You don’t have students if you don’t have any majors.
Why haven’t the models been sent to students? I mean, it’s our money.
If it was about not wanting students to worry about something they have no control over, not letting them see it creates more worry.
It creates uncertainty.
It was brought up to me that the potential program cut list went to the president today. I don’t know how true this is. I sent an email to the interim provost asking if this was true, and she did not get back to me.
As a journalist, I expect to reach out to people in positions of power. It’s one of the fundamentals of this field.
But I’m also a student at this school. It shouldn’t be my job to reach out to offices to know what’s happening.
It should be the job of the people in power to share what’s happening.
At the start of the last semester, when the discussion of program cuts was back on the table, we were told that the students would be informed.
At first, I had hoped this would be different from the last time this happened.
Horowitz started by attending a Student Association (SGA) meeting, and she hosted other meetings where students could come in, talk and ask questions.
Vice President for Finance & Administration, Wayne Lynch, even attended a few of them.
Through our email correspondence, I told Horowitz that I liked her idea of meeting with students.
I believed this could help address the anger, sadness and every other emotion that comes with the idea of cutting programs.
I feel that if students were informed and given access to the same data as the faculty, they wouldn’t be as upset.
“I would be very happy to meet regularly with the students,” she said. “Maybe during an [SGA] meeting?”
But where are those meetings? Even if there isn’t much she can share, anything is better than nothing.
If this administration wanted what was best for students, then they would keep them informed about what is happening.
If they continue to ignore the students, we are only going to get angrier.
You can’t be upset about students being angry regarding what is going on. Fredonia is a home to a lot of people. They have made lifelong friendships and relationships and connected with professors.
There is an argument to be made that it is better for students in affected majors to transfer out of Fredonia if their program gets cut.
Last time around, it was common that students in affected majors did not feel like they were getting a good education.
Yes, at the end of their time here they would have a degree and would be eligible for jobs that require that degree, but they are most likely going to have an education gap, which could be a negative thing for employers.
These students now have to make the decision to say goodbye to friends and professors, and as someone who values their professors, I would be upset if I had to transfer.
These people have taught me and shaped me into who I have become. It’s hard to say goodbye to that.
This school has tried hard to still look appealing to prospective students despite struggling to crawl its way out of the SUNY-wide campus deficits.
On paper this might be true, but again, you don’t have anything if you don’t have students.
To me, I feel as if this administration sees each student as a dollar sign.
They might be good at getting new students, and I’m very happy about that. I love seeing campus full.
But they will soon forget about those students.
They seem as if they don’t care about them because, well, they are already here.
I wouldn’t be surprised at the end of this if we get another email from President Kolison giving us a time and location for a presentation on another “e-dig.”
According to Naomi Baldwin, Kolison’s chief of staff and executive assistant, “The president is preparing an update for the campus community, and he anticipates sending it out by the end of the week.”
I don’t know when the update is coming out, but this administration is going to get a lot more angry students than if they would’ve just been transparent.