Lecture Series endures amid budget cuts

By Sara Pacheco

Budget cuts continue to impact the university with the loss of jobs and the shift of positions among administration staff, but programs such as the University Lecture Series remain intact.

While changes due to the budget cuts may make the Lecture Series not a vibrant as it has been in previous years, “the series will continue,” said Ken Shipley, associate provost of academic services.

The University Lecture Series has already undergone some changes. Jo Ann Collins, former coordinator of the program, had her job terminated in “one of 10 administration shifts due to university budget cuts,” Shipley said.

Diane Volpp-Garcia has taken the position as head coordinator of the University Lecture Series, adding to her campus responsibilities with the Academic Personnel Services office. Being the new coordinator is a part-time job for her, but she said she is pleased with the new position overall.

Volpp-Garcia said that while the schedule of speakers for the Lecture Series was already set for this fall, ideas and plans are being formulated for the coming year.

“ I think the University Lecture Series is important to the campus,” Volpp-Garcia said, “and students need to be aware of it.”

Volpp-Garcia said what is important is that needs of students, with regard to learning about public service, are not being met, and the Lecture Series can provide an interest in public service to students and members of the public who attend series events.

But there were concerns that recent budget cuts would factor in to the Lecture Series and its future.

“ Budget cuts do enter into the plans we have, but we simply have to look for ways to balance the budget and the Lecture Series,” Volpp-Garcia said. “We have to find ways to be operative, but not overly compromised.”

Volpp-Garcia said she and an advisory board, which helps to organize and structure the University Lecture Series, have to find ways to revitalize the program while ensuring that attendees of each session are being provided quality guest speakers.

“ We are looking at some differences for the coming year,” Volpp-Garcia said. “We’re going to be more creative with advertising.”

Volpp-Garcia is still finalizing the list of speakers for the spring 2004 semester but said the first speaker will be Ludmilla Selezneva, a professor of history from Russia who will speak on Western Democracy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from a Russian liberal viewpoint on Jan. 27.