THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 24, 1994 TAG: 9409240251
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER AND LEE BANVILLE, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
The College of William and Mary plans to drop more than a half-dozen master's programs - including English, math and government - to pinpoint its focus and funds on other graduate and undergraduate programs, officials said Friday.
No faculty members in those programs would be laid off, and the 150 students already enrolled would be allowed to continue until they get their degrees.
The proposal is in a strategic plan released Friday that adds details to the college's restructuring efforts.
College officials framed the report in a positive light, stressing a push to boost salaries, increase public service, strengthen interactions with public schools and build up other academic areas, such as computer science and the law school.
``I like to think of this as a plan for greatness in an age of limits,'' President Timothy J. Sullivan said.
But graduate students in affected programs complained that the move might tarnish their degrees. And students and professors alike worried that the cutback in graduate programs would drive faculty members away and make it harder to recruit new professors.
``If you've got them teaching calculus (instead of graduate classes), they might go to other schools,'' said Andy Glen, a master's student in math. ``They need graduate students to keep them thinking, keep them happy.''
John J. McGlennon, chairman of the government department, complained: ``The administration has overstepped its bounds. These decisions do not coincide with the professed concern for liberal-arts education.''
The report illustrates state colleges' growing willingness, after years of resistance, to trim academic offerings.
Legislators, irked by what they saw as colleges' lack of progress in streamlining operations, have required every school to submit restructuring plans this year and next. A school whose plan doesn't win approval could lose 1.5 percent of its state aid.
Sullivan stressed that the report is open to change. The college will hold a series of forums next month before the Board of Visitors votes on the plan.
Nearly all the targeted programs are in areas that don't offer doctorates. The other master's programs to be cut are: psychology, sociology, museum education, the master's in taxation in the business school, and the master's in laws in taxation in the law school.
In addition, the college would drop the education specialist programs - which are halfway between master's and doctoral degrees - in the areas of educational administration, counseling, school psychology and higher education.
In athletics, the college proposes dropping the wrestling and fencing teams and cutting administrative costs by 10 percent.
In the English department, assistant professor Monica Potkay, who is director of graduate studies, said: ``I'm frankly surprised, if not stunned, that English has been cut, because it's a very high-quality program.''
But Sullivan said: ``To be on this list is not a statement that you're mediocre. It is a statement that given the future, we can't afford to do these things.''
Professors also complained about the secrecy with which the college cloaked the report until Friday. ``It would have been better if the committee had visited us with an explanation,'' said Rex Kincaid, associate professor of mathematics. ``It was done very impersonally; that was distressing.''
KEYWORDS: COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY BUDGET CUTS PROPOSED by CNB