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April 09, 2004
University of Georgia to Lay Off 47 Employees
The Athens Banner-Herald reports today that the University of Georgia here in Athens is going to lay off 47 employees from the Division of Public Service and Outreach and the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. The hardest hit department is the University's American Language Program (ALP), which is losing 8 jobs. ALP provides non-credit classes in English for international students who wish to attend UGA. In addition, the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences will be losing 18 jobs in the Cooperative Extension Departments in 8 areas. Read all about it here. Martin MathenyApril 9, 2004 in Economy & Jobs | Permalink
Comments
I notice in the Athens Banner-Herald's article that one University official refers to the two departments that are losing jobs as "second-tier budget units."
The fact is, Cooperative Extension is a vital part of the University's committment to serve the communities. Extension agents provide desperately needed services to our rural and urban communities. Check out their website for more information about the services they provide.
http://extension.caes.uga.edu/
The American Language Program is also important to the University's future. This University is committed to diversity and to being a truly international insitution, but how can we accomplish that if we close off opportunities for international students.
The sad truth is, this whole situation could have been averted if our federal government would follow a sound spending policy instead of recklessly accumulating a record deficit. In Congress, I will fight to make sure that we invest in education, and that all of our public schools, from pre-kindergarten to college are funded.
Posted by: Doug Haines at Apr 9, 2004 12:18:24 PM
I agree that taking the axe to the ALP seems short-sighted. Sure, no student's going to go home to Cobb County and complain that their major's been cut, but it bodes ill for the ability of UGA to recruit and retain foreign students.
The cuts in Coop. Extension seem, too, to be justifiable through some sort of "focus on core competencies" explanation, except that UGA is a Land Grant school, which means that extension and outreach are explicitly part of its charter, right?
Given that there are likely to be more budget cuts in the offing, where does UGA look next for savings?
Posted by: Duncan Elkins at Apr 11, 2004 12:14:22 PM
Not to start a gigantic hate-fest, but couldn't the University curtail some of its spending on adminstrative budgets? I remember hearing about Pres Adams spending some exorbitant amount of money on decorating his office. Also, doesn't his wife get a stipend from UGA. To the best of my knowledge, no other President's wife at UGA has ever gotten that benefit, and if I'm not mistaken her stipend is more than most of the service industry employees at the University make.
In addition, I think Doug's point (which I completely agree with) is that public institutions shouldn't have to be cutting programs to make ends meet. We have to start funding public education in the US. UGA should look to Max Burns to get them the appropriations they need to continue their mission. Max Burns, in turn, should stop voting for stupid tax breaks for the top 1% and start spending our money (with April 15th just around the corner, let's remember it is OUR money) more wisely.
Just my $0.02. (Which Max and W want to give to Ken Lay anyway)
Posted by: What a nice office! at Apr 12, 2004 10:42:32 AM
Here's the problem.
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/040404/uga_20040404093.shtml
And a nice letter to the editor about it, too. http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/041204/let_20040412007.shtml
Posted by: Here's the problem at Apr 12, 2004 11:05:58 AM
Excellent to tell about the employs who are also from the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences,wonderful news for the students.
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