Prickly Pear, Yearbook of Abilene Christian University, 2002 Page: 190
303 p. : ill. ; 32 cm.View a full description of this yearbook.
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MOVING FUNiS ANT hEtAKTMENT$
Reallocation causes an uproarIn a number of controversial moves, administration
officials cut two departments, a program and
a major during a period of several months this
year.
The administration said the cuts were part of a
reallocation process so the university could better use
the funds it had. Students felt the cuts were unnecessary because the university was
spending millions of dollars in campus
improvements, including building
the new hundred-million-dollar
Willaims Performing Arts Center. But
such complaints missed the point, officials
said.
"We constantly have to sit down and
say, 'These are all good things, but we
need to set some priorities."' said Jack
Rich, executive vice president at a Jan.
24 forum where students, faculty and
staff confronted the administration
about their decisions.
Rich and other administrators spent the
better part of four months explaining
that the university was not in a budgetary
crisis, but rather preparing so that
one would not happen.
At the base of the reallocation decisions
was the realization that the university
could not continue to do everything it
was doing. Administrators said they
were forced to choose between excelling
with less or being mediocre with a lot.
The university made its announcement
that a "short-term tightening of the belt"
was necessary on Oct. 1, but when the
Optimist reported Nov. 7 that the sign
language program was likely to be cut,
students reacted strongly.
The Students' Association considered and ultimately
shelved a proposal expressing formal disagreement
with the administration's decision.
Students and faculty wrote angry letters decrying the
university's apparent rejection of a handicapped
minority group.
But in the end, when the sign language cut was
announced, hardly anyone noticed.
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Abilene Christian University. Prickly Pear, Yearbook of Abilene Christian University, 2002, yearbook, 2002; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth39886/m1/193/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Christian University Library.