Issue date: 3/14/07 Section: News

It's again time for many departments on campus to begin planning their class schedules for the next two semesters. There's a problem: They don't know how many classes they will be able to afford.

The departments in the College of Arts and Letters - English, communication studies, art, foreign languages and others - are planning highly-tentative schedules for fall 2007 and spring 2008 based on figures that are, in some cases, significantly less than the current amounts.

The Communication Studies Department is currently planning its schedule around a budget that is $135,000 less than its current budget, said Jeffrey Mason, dean of the College of Arts and Letters.

"We're not eliminating anything right off the bat," Mason said in a phone interview. "This is a process and it isn't truly finished until (summer, when California's budget is finalized)."

"I would say we're planning under one scenario. . . . We know that scenario will change," Mason said. He said that "some (changes) look like cuts."

Mason said he would prefer to plan around a lower budget and then add classes once the amount is finalized, rather than plan a full schedule and be forced to cut classes after students have already enrolled.

Nick Burnett, Communication Studies Department chair, said it is implied that his department will be forced to cut classes to operate within the prospective budget.

The amount of money the department spends on full-time faculty members is fixed, but part-time faculty, teachers' assistants and lecturers are considered "discretionary" spending, Burnett said.

"Really, the only part of the budget that contains substantial discretionary money is part-time faculty," Burnett said in a phone interview. "Most departments looked at savings in the way they taught classes."

Burnett downplayed the significance of the cuts in the tentative budget.

"We did not cut that many sections," he said. "We crafted our schedule to account for these bad cuts."

Burnett declined to specify which classes will be gone or have fewer sections.

"Releasing the information would only create hard feelings," Burnett said. "Anything we do we want to do before (the schedule) goes public."

Class schedules are expected to be posted on Monday.

Burnett said the average cost for departments to hire one part-time faculty member to teach is $1,725 for each unit taught. If the communication studies department were to compensate for a $135,000 reduction only by cutting classes taught by part-time faculty members, it would need to cut about 26 sections of three-unit classes.

Robert Humphrey, a professor of communication studies, said the department has discussed changing some classes to a podcast format, as well as eliminating lecturers and teachers' assistants.

Burnett said selected sections of some classes could be eliminated, and Mason said he had suggested converting some classes to TV classes.

Provost Joe Sheley said all of Sacramento State is waiting on the Budget Task Force to determine if the university's deficit actually exists before any department can plan a definite budget.

"No one's been asked at this point to be making cuts for next year," Sheley said. "My guess is we're talking about hypotheticals."

"If the deficit is real, the (faculty) senate will put together a budget advisory group of some sort," Sheley said.

Scott Farrand, professor of math and member of the Budget Task Force, said that the committee should be finalizing its finding this week.

"We're working on what we're hoping will be the final draft (of our report)," Farrand said.

Cody Kitaura can be reached at news@statehornet.com

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