Wichita State is facing a $7.9 million budget cut for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1. Academic Affairs — the administrative division on campus that oversees curriculum and faculty affairs — has asked the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for a reduction between $1.4 to $1.5 million. 

At a town hall for LAS faculty on Thursday, Dean Sarah Beth Estes presented a $1.5 million budget reduction proposal for the college, though she said some of the numbers may fluctuate in the process. The reductions target four areas: cutting down searches for new faculty and staff, fewer class offerings, consolidating department resources, and shifting some college functions to pull from a different budget pool.

“(The colleges) all got targets,” Estes said. “Ours is not the largest one.” 

Estes declined to answer questions from The Sunflower directly following the town hall. 

WSU President Richard Muma announced a projected 3% budget reduction within the General Use budget last fall, which rose to 7% earlier this year. The GU budget is spread throughout the university, made up of tuition revenue and state funding. 

Academic Affairs is expected to cut its budget by $5.4 million, according to a presentation from Provost Monica Lounsbery in a faculty senate meeting on Feb. 9. 

The Sunflower has made multiple attempts to contact deans from the College of LAS, College of Health Professions, College of Applied Studies, College of Engineering and College of Fine Arts to gather information about budget plans for each. None have responded as of Friday. 

At the town hall, Estes said she wasn’t sure how other colleges were handling budget cuts.

“I don’t know how they’re doing it. I have not heard that there are other town halls,” she said. 

Lounsbery previously told The Sunflower that the university was reducing searches for faculty and staff by allowing certain jobs to remain vacant after an employee retired or resigned. Lounsbery also said that the same number of classes may be offered, but at fewer time slots. 

Several faculty members in the College of Engineering have been cut, as well as staff in the Athletics Department. 

Changing the funding source of some parts of the college might lead to increased student fees

The Restricted Use budget is made up partially of student fee money, while General Use funds come entirely from tuition and state funding.

Estes said that aspects of the college may switch from getting money from the GU budget to this funding source. 

The Kansas legislature is currently considering a measure to block public universities from raising tuition to cover budget shortfalls. By moving funding from GU (partially funded by tuition) to RU (partially funded by student fees), the college could increase its budget through raising fees. 

Estes has been holding town halls every week this February to hear input and answer questions from faculty, so they can be included in the budget reduction process. At Thursday’s town hall, department consolidations and the university’s athletics budget were the main focuses. 

Administrative consolidation

Some LAS departments will have to merge resources, but Estes said most changes would be “administrative.” 

Estes said she has already started preliminary talks with chairs of small departments, which will likely be impacted by this. She did not provide a definition of a small department. She said she will schedule meetings with department chairs to begin the process of consolidating resources next week. 

“Monday (March 2), we will begin meeting about (consolidation), and they will be logistically effective by July 1,” Estes said. “If you are thinking people have to move, no. It’s administrative.”

All of the LAS academic programs are expected to remain where they are now, but the structure and resources between departments may be impacted. Deborah Gordon, associate professor in the Women’s, Intersectionality and Ethnicities studies program, described what she expects with administrative consolidations.

“When she says administrative consolidation, that’s important because I think a lot of faculty think we are going to be put together in one big department. That’s not what she’s talking about,” Gordon said. “She’s talking about, like, sharing an administrative assistant.”

One of the departments that may experience consolidations is philosophy.

“We are one of the small departments that she was talking about,” Chair of Philosophy Patrick Bondy said after the town hall. “It’s likely — I’m not guaranteed that we’re going to be consolidated — but it seems likely for this stage of it all. It will be department consolidations. Programs would stay basically the same.”

Estes said that since her interview for the dean position, the university administration has raised concerns about small programs in LAS.

“From the time I was on campus, I was being told, ‘You have too many small departments.’ ‘You have too many small departments,’” Estes said. “I was doing my level best this year to not hear that, to not deal with that because I thought we had enough to do, and I didn’t think that would be something that we wanted to engage with like, ‘Hello, you don’t know me, but we are going to consolidate.’”

Faculty at the town hall expressed concern and confusion about the process of consolidating. 

“With the consolidation of departments, it looks to me, and I speak for myself. It’s so much shrouded in secrecy about what that process is going to look like,” said Mercy Umeri, an assistant professor in the Hugo Walls School of Public Affairs. “Is there any point where we all know, as we come to this weekly meeting, what’s going on?”

“I will tell you that the process of consolidating feels this way no matter how you do it,” Estes said in her response. “It feels terrible. We don’t want to do it, we didn’t choose to do it and we have to do it.”

Despite frustration about budget reductions, multiple faculty members at the meeting said they appreciated the work Estes was doing and the existence of the town halls, including Gordon.

“I think the town hall meetings are really good,” Gordon said after the meeting. “I think the dean is establishing a very open and much more transparent relationship among the faculty and between the faculty and the dean’s office… These are not something other deans have done in the past. And I think it’s really good, especially when you’re facing budget cuts.”

Sustainability, looking ahead at the LAS budget

“The one goal all of our programs share is enrollment,” Estes said.

At the town hall, Estes stressed the need to generate funding through enrollment and possibly increasing course fees. LAS course fees are currently $8.21 per credit hour, the lowest compared to other colleges, like health professions at $20, fine arts at $40, engineering at $97 and business at $76.

“Another part of the revenue is students who pay or have financial aid,” Estes said. “We need to get out of offering our classes for nothing; that means we need to get cleaned up.”

Estes also said LAS is going to focus on recruitment, especially from Wichita high school career centers.

“What is special about our programs, and where does that all connect to all the different pathways that run into those programs?” Estes said. “We’ve got to identify those pathways, and then we have to work those books and put our resources toward ensuring that students know about us and understand what a great experience they’re going to have by engaging in our programs.”

Estes also said that part of the budget for each academic college is going toward the athletics department, due to last summer’s landmark House vs. NCAA settlement, which allows universities to compensate student athletes directly.

Multiple faculty members expressed that they don’t support giving funds to athletics because “they’re not infusing money into academics,” Gordon said. 

Associate Professor of Philosophy Susan Castro — also an at-large senator in WSU’s Faculty Senate — said she would propose this resolution to stop giving funds towards the lawsuit and to have “a discussion with the executive committee.” 

The Faculty Senate can write resolutions representing the opinion of the faculty, but a decision would ultimately be made by the university’s leadership. The WSU Faculty Senate meets at 3:30 p.m. every second and fourth Monday in 110A Woosley Hall. Meetings are open to the public, including students.