Budget belt tightens for arts and humanities

By Martha Martinez

Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, Luis F. Costa, had a plan up his sleeve to overcome the $1 million cut from the college’s budget–before the university budget was finalized.

“ I had a pretty good idea that I was going to get about $1 million reduction before anybody even mentioned it,” Costa said.

The College of Arts and Humanities began reserving a pool of money about two years ago in order to accommodate possible budget cuts.

“ I told departments to travel less and sacrifice so the sacrifice would not come in all at once,” Costa said.

The College of Arts and Humanities is the largest college at Fresno State and serves about 22 percent of the students, Costa said.

The College of Arts and Humanities includes the following departments:

• Armenian Studies

• Art and Design

• Classical Studies

• Communication

• English

• Foreign Languages and Literature

• Interdisciplinary Humanities

• Linguistics

• London Semester

• Mass Communications and Journalism

• Music

• Philosophy

• Summer Arts

• Theatre Arts

The English department, one of the largest in the college, faces the most class cuts out of any department in the college.

“ You tax the rich,” English Department Chair James Walton said.

Money was spent only on things that were needed such as new seating in the concert hall and improvements in computer labs and facilities, Costa said.

Class offerings through the college were not cut because there was no budget available, but because the college will be serving fewer students, he said.

As Fresno State cuts back enrollment by 900 full-time equivalent students, enrollment in the college will decrease as well.

A formula determines the total number of students that make up FTE. The state counts every 15 units equivalent to one full time student, Costa said.

About 40 sections were cut from the college and were divided among the departments. Costa said more classes were cut where they were most available, which was from the English department.

Walton said because so many classes were reduced, the English department was affected the most by not being able to rehire part-time faculty.

Extensive research had to be done in order to determine what courses were going to be cut, Costa said. Guesses had to be made as to which classes could be cut while affecting the least number of students.

Still, the college is trying to meet the needs of students who are already enrolled.

“ Students don’t think that we worry about them this way,” Costa said. “But we sweat blood to make sure that the classes are there.”

Music Department Chair Jose Diaz said the department had to trim down on course offerings, operations and student assistants.

Because of good budgeting practices by Costa, “budget constraints that some of the other colleges are experiencing are not as deep here,” Diaz said.

The music department was not able to hire as many assistants as they had in previous years.

To cope, Diaz said music majors from fraternities and sororities serve as volunteer student assistants as part of their community service.

“ We are doing more with less,” Linguistics Department Chair Barbara Birch said. “Our department has tightened its budget over the past three years.”

Digital technology is used to teach some Fresno State courses. Birch said the linguistics department uses VCRs and will not be able to upgrade to digital technology as they had hoped.

The lab sciences budget for faculty has been cut, severing faculty and students’ ability to research and experience different languages.

Costa said students will also be affected by cuts to the budget for teachers to travel to conventions, labs and meetings.

It is essential for teachers to present their styles of teaching in order to be critiqued by colleagues and bring back new methods of teaching, he said.

“ It keeps them intellectually alive.”

The College of Arts and Humanities will receive more money when Fresno State begins to recuperate from its budget crisis, Costa said.

“ The growth of the college depends on the growth of the university,” Costa said.

If the budget situation gets any worse at Fresno State, Costa said he will be “pinched” for money as there is only a small reserve to make it through the academic year.