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As the State Legislature’s funding support for public higher education rapidly declines, the California State University system has been faced with unprecedented budget cuts that have had a major impact on all 23 CSU campuses.
Cuts imposed on CSU Stanislaus alone totaled $13.5 million for the current academic year, nearly 20 percent of the University’s budget. We anticipate another round of state budget cuts for 2010-11. As a result, we have been working with the campus community to make difficult decisions that will balance the University’s budget while protecting quality education for students. All programs are being evaluated in order to reduce expenses and achieve greater efficiency. Serving the students is our top priority.
The most recent impact of budget cuts and re-evaluating programs has been the elimination of Winter Term, as announced last week. The question of whether to cut Winter Term in favor of a more traditional academic calendar has been studied numerous times over the past three decades.
After much consultation with faculty, staff, and students, the administration decided to replace Winter Term with a self-support inter-session and move our campus into a more traditional academic calendar consisting of two, 15-week semesters. This important and bold decision will hold faculty members accountable for teaching, save the University nearly $2 million, facilitate student progress toward graduation, and allow more students to take full advantage of their financial aid packages.
Much misinformation has spread about the elimination of Winter Term. The following points seek to clarify the facts surrounding the decision and provide the community at large with a more comprehensive perspective.
1. Faculty are not required to teach during Winter Term even though they are paid for 10 months of teaching. Less than five percent of the faculty teaches a Winter Term course, which means that 95 percent of the faculty receives 10 months of pay for only seven months of instructional work. Replacing Winter Term with a self-support inter-session and expanding the fall and spring semesters to 15 weeks means that professors will now be held accountable for teaching a full load.
2. The new academic calendar will allow students to take full advantage of their financial aid packages during the fall and spring semesters. Currently, students who receive financial aid but do not register for Winter Term lose part of their funding because government aid is based on 30 weeks of classes. Only by moving to two, 15-week semesters will the majority of students stop losing financial aid because less than 50 percent of CSU Stanislaus students take Winter Term while over two-thirds of our students receive financial aid.
3. A self-support inter-session will provide a greater variety and number of class offerings for students. All classes traditionally taught during Winter Term can still be taught during the inter-session in addition to new courses that will enhance students’ education. In order to ensure access to the inter-session, CSU Stanislaus will provide need-based scholarships to eligible students for the difference between self-support and state fees.
4. Eliminating Winter Term in favor of two, 15-week semesters and a self-support inter-session enables students to maintain progress toward graduation. In fact, students will have an additional two weeks per semester and a three-week inter-session to complete their coursework. Students who wish to earn their degree in four years may take 30 units per academic year, which is unchanged from the current requirements.
5. Eliminating Winter Term allows CSU Stanislaus to move to a more traditional academic calendar and normalizes the campus with the rest of the CSU system. As a result, staff members are spared from spending exorbitant amounts of time making adjustments for reporting requirements and financial aid disbursements. Achieving these efficiencies when budget resources are scarce and staffing levels are reduced is crucial.
Times are difficult in the CSU system, but the campus community must work together in a collegial and collaborative manner in order to move CSU Stanislaus forward. In order to maintain academic quality and accessibility, we have a responsibility to re-evaluate programs and structures to ensure that they are the most efficient and productive ways for helping students attain their higher education goals.
Changing the academic calendar by eliminating Winter Term is in the best interest of students and the University, both short- and long-term. There is certain to be opposition from some faculty members because they now have to work four more weeks of the year just like faculty at other CSU campuses. Nevertheless, that is what they are paid to do.
The budget challenges for public higher education in California are not over. They will create ongoing discussions and decisions. But rest assured that through it all, quality instruction for students is the top priority at CSU Stanislaus.
A detailed “Q&A” on the University’s new Academic Calendar is available on the CSU Stanislaus Web site at http://www.csustan.edu/academics/QandA.html.
Cuts imposed on CSU Stanislaus alone totaled $13.5 million for the current academic year, nearly 20 percent of the University’s budget. We anticipate another round of state budget cuts for 2010-11. As a result, we have been working with the campus community to make difficult decisions that will balance the University’s budget while protecting quality education for students. All programs are being evaluated in order to reduce expenses and achieve greater efficiency. Serving the students is our top priority.
The most recent impact of budget cuts and re-evaluating programs has been the elimination of Winter Term, as announced last week. The question of whether to cut Winter Term in favor of a more traditional academic calendar has been studied numerous times over the past three decades.
After much consultation with faculty, staff, and students, the administration decided to replace Winter Term with a self-support inter-session and move our campus into a more traditional academic calendar consisting of two, 15-week semesters. This important and bold decision will hold faculty members accountable for teaching, save the University nearly $2 million, facilitate student progress toward graduation, and allow more students to take full advantage of their financial aid packages.
Much misinformation has spread about the elimination of Winter Term. The following points seek to clarify the facts surrounding the decision and provide the community at large with a more comprehensive perspective.
1. Faculty are not required to teach during Winter Term even though they are paid for 10 months of teaching. Less than five percent of the faculty teaches a Winter Term course, which means that 95 percent of the faculty receives 10 months of pay for only seven months of instructional work. Replacing Winter Term with a self-support inter-session and expanding the fall and spring semesters to 15 weeks means that professors will now be held accountable for teaching a full load.
2. The new academic calendar will allow students to take full advantage of their financial aid packages during the fall and spring semesters. Currently, students who receive financial aid but do not register for Winter Term lose part of their funding because government aid is based on 30 weeks of classes. Only by moving to two, 15-week semesters will the majority of students stop losing financial aid because less than 50 percent of CSU Stanislaus students take Winter Term while over two-thirds of our students receive financial aid.
3. A self-support inter-session will provide a greater variety and number of class offerings for students. All classes traditionally taught during Winter Term can still be taught during the inter-session in addition to new courses that will enhance students’ education. In order to ensure access to the inter-session, CSU Stanislaus will provide need-based scholarships to eligible students for the difference between self-support and state fees.
4. Eliminating Winter Term in favor of two, 15-week semesters and a self-support inter-session enables students to maintain progress toward graduation. In fact, students will have an additional two weeks per semester and a three-week inter-session to complete their coursework. Students who wish to earn their degree in four years may take 30 units per academic year, which is unchanged from the current requirements.
5. Eliminating Winter Term allows CSU Stanislaus to move to a more traditional academic calendar and normalizes the campus with the rest of the CSU system. As a result, staff members are spared from spending exorbitant amounts of time making adjustments for reporting requirements and financial aid disbursements. Achieving these efficiencies when budget resources are scarce and staffing levels are reduced is crucial.
Times are difficult in the CSU system, but the campus community must work together in a collegial and collaborative manner in order to move CSU Stanislaus forward. In order to maintain academic quality and accessibility, we have a responsibility to re-evaluate programs and structures to ensure that they are the most efficient and productive ways for helping students attain their higher education goals.
Changing the academic calendar by eliminating Winter Term is in the best interest of students and the University, both short- and long-term. There is certain to be opposition from some faculty members because they now have to work four more weeks of the year just like faculty at other CSU campuses. Nevertheless, that is what they are paid to do.
The budget challenges for public higher education in California are not over. They will create ongoing discussions and decisions. But rest assured that through it all, quality instruction for students is the top priority at CSU Stanislaus.
A detailed “Q&A” on the University’s new Academic Calendar is available on the CSU Stanislaus Web site at http://www.csustan.edu/academics/QandA.html.
— Dr. Herman Lujan, Interim Provost at California State University, Stanislaus
November 04, 2009 - 01:27 AM
I take exception to several points in the letter from Provost Lujan. First, faculty are really paid by contract to teach 24 WTUs, what terms they teach have no bearing on the number so characterizing faculty as not working winter is disingenuous at best. By removing winter term, faculty will still be teaching the same number of WTUs, just in different terms. Also, faculty not teaching in winter are not on vacation, they are still in their offices every day, preparing for Spring, doing research and scholarly activities and advising students.
Also, to say that faculty were widely consulted can only be true in the strangest of senses. The faculty committee that normally examines academic matters did look at winter term and found the faculty overwhelmingly supported keeping it (as did surveys of students). However, this was ignored and the recommendation of a committee put together by the president was used to formulate a decision. The faculty representation on this committee were one retired and one retiring faculty member, not very representative of the faculty on campus.
Finally, I don't know anyone that wants to teach a course in the shortened intersession. None of our current courses will easily fit this model and with the overloads faculty are teaching to meet student demand, no one has time to develop a new course to fit this accelerated time schedule.
November 04, 2009 - 01:34 AM
One more point, about half of the original $13.5 million in cuts came about not because of the economic downturn, but due to local accounting. About $6 million would have had to be cut regardless of the economy.
November 04, 2009 - 08:10 PM
“After much consultation with faculty, staff, and students, the administration decided to replace Winter Term . . . “?
I don’t think so. This comment is blatantly untrue. Faculty, staff, and students were overwhelmingly opposed to ending Winter Term. When the recommendation TO CONTINUE Winter Term was handed to President Shirvani, he disagreed and created his own special consultation committee of just a few members. This resulted in a few against the many sort of action. Sound familiar?
There are many comments that come out of the mouths of administration these days that many would disagree with. Our faculty are not lazy. They work hard and sacrifice a lot of personal time to make sure things get done. As a long-time staff member of the university, I witness their hard work every single day.
November 05, 2009 - 12:30 AM
I am appalled that Provost Lujan would speak so unprofessionally about fellow faculty members. In this time of such hardship he is putting down faculty members and implying that they are lazy! As a student at CSU Stanislaus, that is deeply disturbing. I have been a student here for several years and have only the highest regard for the faculty and staff at Stanislaus. For an interim provost, that has only been at this college a couple months, to speak so rudely to the men and women that work so hard is morally wrong. To all of the faculty and staff at Stanislaus, THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU ARE DOING!
November 06, 2009 - 12:35 PM
The Interim Provost has made important comments about winter term. At least in this article, the administration, via Interim Provost Lujan, appear to be waging a PR campaign to publicly marginalize faculty while trying to “clarify the facts surrounding the decision and provide the community at large with a more comprehensive perspective.” I have been puzzled for many months at this targeted approach because I can’t figure out why former faculty members, now administrators, spend so much energy marginalizing faculty in public forums when that (1. doesn’t seem to support the mission of the University, (2. does not pointedly address important, significant points brought up in other articles (see Ian Littlewood’s comments on Oct 30 2009) and (3. is not going to improve the public image of the University. I am baffled and frankly, disappointed.
The stated reason for eliminating winter term is “to make difficult decisions that will balance the University’s budget while protecting quality education for students” because “the California State University system has been faced with unprecedented budget cuts that have had a major impact on all 23 CSU campuses” including the more than $13 million cut to CSU-Stanislaus.
Yet, the first point of the Provost’s article is a direct attack on faculty, and the attack is again repeated at the end of the article. What is the logical reason to criticize the faculty in an article ostensibly written to provide clarity on budget decisions?
I do want to give Interim Provost Lujan the benefit of the doubt. I don’t want to believe that he is suggesting that currently, most CSU-Stanislaus faculty do not currently teach a full load, but they will do so under the new plan. If that is what is being said, that is truly incorrect since all faculty cannot receive their full salary without teaching their contractual “full load”.
Since faculty workload will NOT change with elimination of winter, how does eliminating Winter term make faculty more accountable? It only changes WHEN they perform that work and does not save that money at all. Thus, making the point about faculty workload in response to the academic calendar seems relevant only to place faculty in a negative light for the public. What good does that do and how does creating negative feelings about faculty in public help the CSU budget? Again, I must say it is a very red herring and a saddening one at that.
(end part 1)
November 06, 2009 - 12:42 PM
(Begin part 2)
Point 3. I do know that if at this moment you were to look at the University Extended Education offerings, there are not as many as at the ‘regular’ University. Hence, the argument that “A self-support inter-session will provide a greater variety and number of class offerings for students.” is not true on its face, and “All classes traditionally taught during Winter Term can still be taught during the inter-session…” is also not true of the 2 Winter session classes I teach. Three weeks is not long enough for almost any plant to complete its life-cycle and certainly not long enough for any realistic lab exercises and projects. Can you imagine compressing 26 3-hour lab periods into 3 weeks? That is 26 hours of lab/week. When would students study? At least for many biology courses (one of the fastest growing majors on campus), the claim that “all classes traditionally taught in Winter can be taught in the intersession” is grossly exaggerated.
“In order to ensure access to the inter-session, CSU Stanislaus will provide need-based scholarships to eligible students for the difference between self-support and state fees.” Again, I thought a major reason for NOT having Winter term was saving money. Creating a need to provide scholarships (the intersession) mathematically cannot SAVE money, unless it is the same exact money now used for need-based scholarships. And besides, why create the need to allocate more money if costs to the University are the principle reason to eliminate Winter term?
Point 4. The point that students have 2 more weeks per semester to complete their coursework as evidence that they will be on track to graduate in the same time as before is illogical. That only means they will be in the same class 2 weeks longer and they will still have to do everything they would have done in the 13 week semester, only now it takes two weeks longer….which I thought was the problem with the current system.
Point 5. From my understanding this is the only really valid point of discussion that both committees agreed needed resolution. Why not argue this point rather than decry faculty?
In sum, I am afraid, but I hope I am wrong, that much of the arguments put forth by Interim Provost Lujan, do not actually clear things up, but rather demonstrate a desire to reduce the standing of faculty in the public which I fear will eventually sour the public on attending and donating to this University. Instead, why not focus on the actual issues: Budgets are tight, students need more sections of classes taught by faculty, and staff need improved software or something to reduce their truly (I agree!) “exorbitant amounts of time” spent on making adjustments, etc. Addressing fundamental issues will more likely find solutions than fishing for red herring.
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