I have not been able to post due to time constraints lately.
I have been fighting to save my university from budget cuts. Please visit the following sites to read some information pertaining to this: https://sites.google.com/site/uniphysicsfacts/home
Students sit-in protest of cuts.
There are even more programs threatening to be cut: Des Moines Register exclusive: Eighty-plus programs considered for cuts.
This is alarming, for all of this wouldn’t be happening if legislators in my state’s congress were not stalling on passing the necessary funding for the state universities. They are skeptical of the necessity for offering so much funding to education. This bothers me for it reveals that there is a growing devaluing of education in our legislators. This is not the first time they threatened to withdraw funding to try to force my university into cutting programs, but this year is different from other years. This year they have put an extreme amount of pressure on my university, to the point where the cuts are a source of desperation. The transparency and communication in all of this has been minimal – many at my university finding out after the decisions were made. There has been a shared governance policy my university has, but this has been ignored. It seems that the democratic environment has been replaced with a corporate mindset. This is sour news, and a depressing blow to education, this state in which I live, the students and faculty at my university, and the communities in which we live.
There could have been a better way to do this, but they have not shown any openness in allowing such a discussion. I am so disappointed in all of this. If any cuts should be made, then it should be made to the athletics and the administration before academics is even considered, and this is not being done hardly at all.
In the meantime, I have just turned in a major project necessary for graduation and received a high grade on it. I will graduate in May 2012.
Reshaping Reality 