Photo by Kelli Straka | The Appalachian

Whitt

Photo by Kelli Straka | The Appalachian

Pelto

Editor's note: This is part three of a four-part series exploring perspectives from the deans of Appalachian State University's ten colleges.

As Appalachian State University moves into the second semester of a year marred by large budget cuts, The Appalachian has continued to speak with the deans of university colleges about how their individual programs have been affected.

So far, five deans have weighed in on cuts to the Walker College of Business, Reich College of Education, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Fine and Applied Arts and University College

Now, the deans of the College of Health Sciences and Hayes School of Music have spoken about how they have handled losses in funding.

College of Health Sciences

The College of Health Sciences, Appalachian's newest college, lost approximately $600,000 from its budget this year.

"There is no question the budget issues have significantly increased the challenge for developing a new college," Founding Dean Fred Whitt said.

Despite cuts, the college has remained committed to providing seats for students in all of their required courses, Whitt said.

"This has been a real challenge, but we grew over 3,500 student credit hours in [the] fall despite the budget cuts," Whitt said. "This is good and bad. It is good that we remain committed to students, but it also takes a toll on faculty. They are teaching more classes and have more students in class."

Several factors have combined to take a toll on the department's instructors. Several years of decreased pay raises, lower funding for instructional equipment, fewer graduate students for research support, large numbers of students in some courses and heavier course loads have all negatively affected faculty retention.

"I think what keeps me up at night is the long term effect this may have on the quality of the UNC System as a whole by losing high-quality faculty," Whitt said. "We have very talented and student-centered faculty in the College of Health Sciences and throughout the university."

The college has been unable to fill several positions. It is still missing an associate dean, a director for the Institute of Health and Human Services, and two administrative assistants. Funding that supported three part-time teaching positions was cut as well.

"These are real dollars and these cuts have been the most significant I have seen in 35 years in higher education and are very difficult to absorb," Whitt said.

Whitt said the college is working hard to cope.

"We are working diligently to maintain our momentum and not let the budget issues deter advancing the new college forward," Whitt said. "When resources are reduced, my general response is to find other revenue sources to keep moving forward rather than cut classes, reduce services for students and reduce support for faculty."

Hayes School of Music

The Hayes School of Music lost approximately 40 percent of its operating budget in the past year.

The operating budget includes basic office supplies, telephone and copying expenses, music purchases, piano tuning, faculty travel and any "day-to-day and month-to-month operations," Dean William Pelto said.

In the face of budget cuts, the school of music is most adamant about maintaining personnel, in the hopes of providing opportunities for students.

"We've actually done a very good job and have been able to hang on to positions and retain class seats," Pelto said.

Faculty travel expenses were immediately and significantly cut, except for tenure-track faculty who are not yet tenured, Pelto said.

Cuts on faculty travel have had two major effects. Faculty have had to cover their own expenses more often, despite not seeing pay raises for the past several years. And in the long term, faculty won't have as much exposure to professional opportunities, Pelto said.

The Hayes School once employed a full-time research development officer from university advancement. This position held the responsibility of evaluating external funding, including grants and private and corporate donors, but was cut due to budget reductions.

"It's essentially one less person to provide assistance and support when we do have projects and events," Pelto said. "Long term, it will hinder our ability to develop outside resources."

Furthermore, external funds donated to the school for large projects and long term planning are now being used to maintain basic operations.

"We're very fortunate to have such funds," Pelto said. "And it's allowed basic operations to go on, but it's been a setback."

Story and Photo: KELLI STRAKA, Senior News Reporter