Illustration by Arnie Bermudez

The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences houses a great majority of the student body, with 16 departments and roughly 6,400 majors (including graduate students). The departments are underfunded by the state; most get a little less than $3 million each - 90-95 percent of which goes to salaries - for their budgets. The entire state budget of SBS is about $30 million - including funds doled out to each department's permanent, operation and temporary budgets.

SBS is important for several reasons: Its departments are ranked high nationally - philosophy and anthropology are in the 90th percentile and political science is in the 75th percentile. In addition to its large enrollment, SBS accounts for most of the burden in teaching general education courses as well.

Political science is a perfect example of a department in need of improvement.

The political science department is one of the largest departments in SBS - it houses 12 percent of the SBS students.

The department needs some serious attention. First, Economics 200 - Introduction to Basic Economic Issues - should be one of the major's core, lower-division classes, since most the political problems revolve around economic issues, both nationally and internationally.

Special arrangements will have to be made with the Eller business college because basic economics courses are already full of its students - or hopeful students. Such an arrangement should be all right with Eller because SBS shoulders almost the entire burden for providing gen-ed courses. Let's be reciprocal.

Another recommendation would be offering meaningful seminars that resemble the "cohorts" that the Eller college requires for its majors - though they would have to be larger in SBS. These "cohorts" could come to seminars with discussion questions and topics given in advance and be ready to participate in the seminar.

Ryan Scalise Columnist

In addition, there should be more classes available. For instance, in political science, there are not enough classes on political theory and philosophy - courses that should be lower-division requirements. These classes are essential because they give students the analytical tools and the ideology to back their assertions. If students do not have the opportunity to develop and choose which perspectives they find most attractive, the rest of their upper-division work will not be thoroughly conceived, and subsequently rendered less meaningful.

SBS should be stern on who can take upper-division classes; the proper prerequisites should be met. As of now, students who should be taking 200 and 300-level courses are often able to take 400-plus level classes relatively unchecked. The students who do this are taking the places of students who not only need those classes to graduate on time, but who are also more prepared to meaningfully participate in these high-level courses because of their previous course work. Eventually, these classes should be restricted to students within the major.

These proposals will obviously require more money in order to pay for instructors and materials. Accordingly, the political science department, as well as other departments in the college, should require a differential fee like Eller does. A differential fee of, say, $250 could greatly improve the capacity of the department to have seminars, teach honors courses and have an ample supply of professors.

However, such fees are discouraged for nonprofessional colleges, which is biased and unfair to SBS because it does much for the student body. If students cannot afford to pay a fee, then financial aid could be sought - assistance should be provided to those who need it. It is bothersome that the university discourages colleges from levying differential fees. The departments have nothing to work with; they are left sitting on their hands.

The administration needs to do a better job of allocating funds in order to spend more on giving departments extra resources to acquire more instructors and increase class availability. Perhaps it can find a way to drain the fund for installing hideous pieces of art like the one standing by the new student union.

It is necessary to cut corners when the finances are in a squeeze, but that does not mean the value of an education has to decline. Changes need to be made. If you want to run with the big dogs, you have to get off the porch.

If the UA is serious about quality over quantity and serious about bringing this institution into the top tier of public rankings, it had better take some serious action.

Ryan Scalise is a political science senior. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.