Editor:
I have a bone to pick with Provost Paul Sypherd. Before yesterday's article on the journalism and statistics departments, I saw the elimination of these two programs as sad but necessary. I was especially upset to see the journalism department torn apart as I am leaning toward the journalism and media fields. I assumed that the decision to close these departments was well thought out and inevitable. I was half right! Obviously the provost has made up his mind and loss of the journalism department is inevitable. To assume the decision was well thought out was as wrong as could be.
To start, how dare the input of the students not be taken into account throughout the entire process! May I remind you that without students, there is no university? We pay for the departments and for the provost's salary Ä we ought to have a say in cutbacks. I also don't understand how a decision could be well thought out and unbiased if the provost already knew what his "decision was going to be."
Provost Sypherd stated that the department was "redundant" and that "few students acquire jobs in the media field." I ask you, provost, have you looked around lately? Have you seen the hundreds of newspapers received daily by the library? Have you ever subscribed to one of the countless magazines that clutter the mail every day? To say that few jobs exist in the media field is ridiculously uninformed; the media is everywhere!
Hopefully the provost doesn't state lack of interest as an issue in the departments closing. Only several weeks ago the Daily Wildcat published a cover story declaring the media arts department was overcrowded and underfunded. Too many people were interested in the major! That does not sound like a lack of interest in the media to me.
Perhaps Provost Paul Sypherd should think before he speaks. The students of the university understand the need for cuts. We live on a budget ourselves. We would like to know that these cuts are being made by responsible individuals who listen to our needs. I propose that the journalism department merge with the media arts department to simplify things. I'm sure this recommendation comes a little too late, but it won't seem to matter as Provost Paul Sypherd doesn't listen to students anyway!
Geoffrey Smith
Undeclared Freshman