Budget Cuts Threaten Humanities Classes

Although UC Berkeley is beginning to adjust to years of consistent state cuts, the university's arts and humanities departments are still reeling from reductions in discussion sections.

Sections of lower division arts and humanities courses such as Spanish, Arabic and music, may see their sections slashed in half this fall after a recent cut in the "temporary academic staff budget" for arts and humanities, which funds graduate student instructors, lecturers and visiting professors.

Ralph Hexter, executive dean of the College of Letters and Science, said department officials are laying out a request for additional funding to send to Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Paul Gray.

"(This) comes after years of successive temporary cuts," Hexter said. "All of those cuts have accumulated and the permanent ones take away from real resources."

With state support spread thin, department heads in arts and humanities classes-which are often taught through sections rather than lectures-are having trouble adapting to the dwindling sections.

"It's hitting us particularly hard because we teach so many of our courses in sections that are individually taught by teachers or GSIs," Hexter said.

Adding to the strain, fewer faculty members are going on hiatus or retiring this year, leaving less money in salary savings for the college, he said.

The college vowed not to cut reading and composition courses because they are a university requirement, which only leaves room for cuts to high-demand language courses like Arabic, Hexter said.

By continuing courses in less popular languages like Danish and Tibetan, critics say the university is spreading itself too thin by turning students away from more popular courses.

But Hexter said the mission of the university is to offer students a wide array of educational venues and that the university prides itself on offering a variety of languages.

"It's important to teach a broad range of languages even though some of them have small enrollment," Hexter said.

He pointed to efforts to extend language course offerings through alternative programs.

Arabic Without Walls, a program that allows UC students to take Arabic through online instruction, is one of many efforts to increase accessibility, Hexter said. The program eventually be accessible nationwide.

"We are a state institution and we represent a resource to the state," Hexter said. "It's an interesting balancing act."

But since the cuts are limited to the arts and humanities departments within the College of Letters and Science, other departments in the college are not being affected by the cut, and are seeing improvements.

Robert Holub, dean of the undergraduate division of the college, said that the notice of the cuts caught him off-guard, as the department he heads, the interdisciplinary studies department, has been on the upswing financially.

The department, which is not a part of the college's arts and humanities program, is in the process of restoring honors courses and sections for courses such as mass communications and cognitive science, Holub said.

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