Budget cuts blamed for one department offering fewer classes during summer

• Tweet
• 

Budget cuts have forced the department of sociology, anthropology and social work to offer fewer classes during the summer.

Chairwoman Brigitte Bechtold said because of budget cuts, the department will be cutting two research-method classes that would normally be offered in the summer.

“We have two professors who are retiring after the semester,” Bechtold said. “This doesn’t impact the summer schedule at all, however, because we’re able to hire people to teach the courses on a fixed-term contract. We’ve been told by the dean that due to budget cuts, only the most important courses can be offered this summer.”

The search for permanent faculty member replacements will begin full-force in fall 2012. The names of the retiring faculty have not been released.

As opposed to the eight courses typically offered by the department, only five will be available this summer.

“We’re only offering a total of five classes,” she said. “We’ll have options for the programs that require internships and the courses that relate to that. Also, we’ll have two field-school courses in anthropology.”

Courses in research methods will not be available this summer.

Of the five courses being offered, three of them are faculty-led study abroad courses.

“One study-abroad course is a social and criminal justice course taking place in Brazil; there’s an anthropology course in Belize and another opportunity for students to do field work in Bolivia,” Bechtold said.

Dianne DeSalvo, Study Abroad program director, said study abroad courses are gaining popularity, particularly those in the field of anthropology and social work.

Students going to Belize will be there for 10 days. The Brazil program is 14 days, while the Bolivia program selects two or three students to stay the entire summer, supervised by Sergio Chavez, professor of sociology, anthropology and social work.

“Applications are still coming in. The goal is to have 10 to 12 students per class,” she said. “There was enough interest in the Belize anthropology program that a second class was started. Therefore, some students will be going in May, and some are going in July.”