As deans across campus work to submit detailed proposals for program changes under President Pete Likins' Focused Excellence plan, some of the people most directly affected by the proposed changes remain optimistic.

The heads of two departments considered for elimination or merging say their deans seem supportive of plans to keep those departments open.

George Gutsche, head of the Russian and Slavic studies department, which is slated for a possible merger, said Humanities College Dean Charles Tatum has supported leaving the department intact. Gutsche said that throughout the college, committees have found problems with the merger proposal.

That was welcome news to Gutsche, who has said he worries that a merger with the German studies department would create an impersonal environment for students accustomed to getting advising from the professor of their choice.

"We've invested a lot of time and effort in defending our program and marshalling arguments against the proposal to merge," Gutsche said.

Tatum was traveling outside the country and unavailable to comment Wednesday or yesterday.

The head of the Atmospheric Sciences department, which Likins and Provost George Davis targeted for elimination, said his boss had also been supportive of keeping the department intact.

Steven Mullen, the department head, said that the last time he spoke with College of Science Dean Joaquin Ruiz, the dean was supportive of keeping the department intact with eight faculty members and a focus on graduate studies.

Ruiz was unavailable for comment yesterday afternoon.

"The science that we are in is a very cost-effective science," Mullen said. "It's one of the very few disciplines that I'm aware of where there've been numerous papers that show it's a cost-effective science in terms of our prediction abilities."

The undergraduate program in atmospheric sciences is already in the process of being eliminated. But Mullen wants to maintain a strong graduate program and keep the eight full-time faculty members in the department together.

"That will facilitate collaboration and research," Mullen said. "That is consistent with Focused Excellence."

When Likins announced in January initial plans for program cuts, mergers and reorganizations, he highlighted more than 40 possible changes, ranging from the elimination of the Atmospheric Sciences department to the merger of the Russian and Slavic studies department with the German studies department.

He then charged college deans with creating more detailed plans justifying the possible changes and proposing alternatives. As of yesterday afternoon, 13 of those plans had been completely submitted, said Ed Frisch, assistant vice president for resource planning and management.

Likins and Davis will review those proposals. If they decide the plans merit more consideration, unless all affected faculty members agree, the proposals will undergo an extensive review process that includes a variety of committees made up of faculty, staff and students.

Frisch, who is overseeing the collection of detailed proposals, expects that affected faculty will fully support some. Others, including those involving atmospheric sciences and Russian and Slavic studies, have already met dissent and are unlikely to see widespread faculty support.

Faculty have joined with current and former students to petition administrators to keep the Russian and Slavic studies department, Gutsche said.

"I'm optimistic that reason will prevail," he said.

Mullen has taken a different approach, saying he doesn't think recruiting people for a letter-writing campaign is the best way to save his department. As a scientist, he's taken what he considers a more scientific approach, trying to explain to administrators why the department should be saved.

Speaking at town halls and forums, Likins has said departments can most effectively make their cases by presenting plans for financial solvency, rather than simply arguing that they should survive.