PSU cancels 79 summer classes

It’s official. We’re in the throes of summer term and the weather has decided to join in the fun. Before long, we will all be complaining about how hot it is since we can now stop doing it about the rain. Ah, isn’t life great? As long as there’s something to grumble about, we’re all good.

However, some students have reason to grumble. If you were enrolled in one of the nearly 80 classes PSU canceled this summer, some as late as a week before the start date, you know what I’m talking about.

The administration told The Oregonian that the decision to cut classes was the “least-harmful choice for students, given that the university had to cut $5.7 million from its 2013–2014 budget.”

Least harmful? Yeah, that’s what it was about.

I wonder if that’s what the 45 students who signed up for a genetics class thought when they got the news that “Oh, by the way, we changed our minds and are not offering it anymore.” It makes sense to cut a class if it’s going to be a loss; if you don’t have enough students to fill it, there’s no reason to run it. When you have almost 50, it’s ridiculous.

Biology professor Stan Hillman did the math in an interview with The Oregonian, revealing that the class would have brought in $27,000 in tuition. Paying an adjunct professor with a doctorate in biology would have cost only $4,700, meaning PSU would have made more than $20,000 from that single class.

Lest we think that doesn’t make a bit of sense, the administration explained that all the courses cut would be offered in the regular academic year, meaning that the 45 unlucky ones will just be squashed into classes in other terms. And, as we all know, bigger classes always mean better quality. What was that about being least harmful?

Students don’t take summer classes for the fun of it, at least not last time I checked. Often, they need one last class to graduate or to move onto graduate school in the fall. Maybe they want to—gasp—graduate in four years. Canceling courses so late undoubtedly threw a wrench in a lot of plans.

If the administration already knew that the classes would be available next year, why offer them in the summer in the first place? Did they really only think about this a week before the summer term? Methinks some strategic planning classes might be in order. Or maybe those were cut.

Obviously, there’s a budget crunch. The school needs to save money, and they’re going to cut corners wherever they can. That’s life. It happens. Pretending they’re maintaining the integrity of our learning environment, however, is insulting.

Here’s an idea. PSU President Wim Wiewel rakes in an annual salary of $513,000 in pay and benefits. Why not start there if we’re so concerned with not harming students? He could handle a little shave and still look mighty spiffy. Somehow, I doubt that’ll ever be an option.

It amuses me when people in the upper regions of educational institutions tout us as the hope of the next generation, the answer to our country’s woes, the bright future of the nation and, heck, the universe. That is, until the change stops jingling in their wallets. Then we see what’s really important, what our future is really all about. Ca-ching.

How surprising.