THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 25, 1994 TAG: 9410250279
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LEE BANVILLE, CAMPUS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
The College of William and Mary is saving two master's programs, in psychology and education, that were to be eliminated under the school's strategic plan.
But the move did not appease critics of the plan, who say it was drawn without sufficient minority or faculty involvement.
Provost Gillian Cell on Friday released a second draft of the plan. The initial version had proposed cutting more than a half-dozen master's programs, including English and math, to focus more attention on undergraduate studies.
But the new version reinstated the psychology program and the graduate educational specialist degree in school psychology.
``A substantial number of graduate students teach undergraduate lab classes,'' psychology professor Glenn Shean said Friday. ``They would need to be replaced by approximately four to five full-time faculty at a cost of almost $200,000.''
He said the strategic planning committee, led by Cell, ``seemed to have been operating without all of the facts about our program, but they should be complimented for their flexibility.''
The plan will go to President Timothy J. Sullivan for a final look and will be voted on by the Board of Visitors in early November.
The plan targets diversity as an issue that William and Mary should address. But African-American students and members of the wrestling team, which is also slated to be cut under the plan, are mounting a petition drive to stop the plan because all of the 25 members of the planning committee are white.
So far, organizers said, 1,000 signatures have been collected.
``If diversity is what they wanted to achieve in the plan,'' said Khalil Abdul-Malik, a junior wrestler at the school, ``they should have started with themselves. This committee is a symbol of the very problem they say they want to correct.''
Cell responded, ``It is expected, and rightfully so, that in 1994, if you have a committee making such important decisions, it will be diverse. But the fact is, at the vice president and dean level, we have not achieved that diversity. It exemplifies why we focused so intensely on the issue of diversity in the report.''
Others also have objected to the plan for not involving enough students and faculty members.
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences passed a resolution last week suggesting that the board's vote be delayed until February to allow more discussion on campus.
But Cell said the plan has to be voted on by the end of the year to meet the state deadline for restructuring.
KEYWORDS: COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY
by CNB