Faculty, staff testify at legislative budget hearing

by Daniel J. Fitzgibbons, Chronicle staff

oping to share some of their concerns about the campus's budget situation with legislators, two faculty and a professional staffer traveled to Bridgewater State College Feb. 28 to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee.

     English professor John Nelson, Sociology Department chair Randall Stokes and Irene Starr, director of the Foreign Language Resource Center, shared their views and experiences as the panel focused on education funding for the upcoming fiscal year.

     The trio's testimony followed formal presentations by representatives of state and community colleges. Vice President for Management and Fiscal Affairs Stephen Lenhardt represented the University system at the hearing.

     But according to Nelson, the legislators seemed more interested in remarks by faculty, staff and students impacted by the state's fiscal crisis.

     In his remarks, Nelson discussed problems related to deferred maintenance on campus and the drop in state funding for library materials.

     "The infrastructure at the University is crumbling," he told the panel. "We have for too long been penny-wise and pound-foolish. An example is the Old Chapel, which appears on almost every brochure and advertisement for the University. Because the steeple was not maintained, it cost a million dollars to tear the belfry and steeple down and rebuild them stone by stone; the last maintenance to the steeple had been done about 1936."

     Now the building is closed because the costs of bringing the facility up to code are prohibitive, he said.

     With library funding in the state dropping from $14 million last year to $5 million this year, the campus's research library ranking also has plunged, Nelson said. "Because of cuts to critical journals and book purchases, we will truly rank 113th out of 113. We now have invoices for previously purchased books which we cannot pay. Our disastrous situation means that we can no longer compete for lucrative grants and contracts which require minimum book, journal and database holdings."

     Stokes told the lawmakers about the impact of budget problems within the Sociology Department. He noted that the number of faculty in the department has dropped from a high of 33 in the late 1980s to the current complement of 25.

     But the department stands to lose seven faculty - four to early retirement, two to other institutions and another to planned retirement. Even with the addition of a new faculty member next January, he said, the loss of resources will prompt a loss of enrollment in the department and some scheduled courses will have no one to teach them.

     According to Stokes, the loss of three faculty jeopardizes the graduation of students in the Criminal Justice concentration, which already has suspended new admissions.

     Stokes said his remarks were received "respectfully," but doubted whether they had much impact after so many hours of testimony.

     But Stokes said the lawmakers showed particular interest in Starr's testimony concerning the planned shutdown of her facility. In January, the campus administration announced plans to close the center and reassign its responsibilities to other units. Starr and her staff received layoff notices.

     The story apparently struck a chord with Rep. David Flynn (D-Bridgewater), who chaired the hearing, and other lawmakers, said Stokes.

     "Irene really hit a home run," he said. "She was the only one who got more than platitudes from them."

     Stokes said one lawmaker even called the FLRC closing a "dumb idea."

     Starr said this week that she felt compelled to testify because of her concern that "overloaded students and faculty" will lose the unified technology and library services of the FLRC when it is closed this summer.

     "The purpose of using technology in teaching language and culture is to bring foreign languages and cultures to campus since it is impossible to take all students abroad," she testified. "Closing the center, as scheduled, would severely limit student access to knowledge and resources in language, literature, and culture."

     Dispersing FLRC services to other areas will directly affect faculty and students, Starr predicted. "Hunting for resources all over campus means less study time for students and less time for faculty to prepare lessons, correct student papers, do research, etc.," she said.

     "I would say I got the most positive response of the day," she said. "They asked about the overall budget, and they were in disbelief. People told me that my passion came through."