Trustees almost
nix forensics

By ELIZABETH MILLER
UNIVERSITY JOURNAL

Protests at Friday’s Board of Trustees meeting by the forensics team proved more than successful as the trustees voted not to cut the program, even though it was proposed earlier that day the program be cut because of a tight budget.
“You are very persuasive,” Chairman and Trustee Jim Lunt said to the group’s director.
Terry West, associate professor of communication and the director of forensics, attended the meeting with 14 other individuals — 12 team members, one assistant and one alumnus.
When it was time to approve the budget, President Steven D. Bennion acknowledged representatives from forensics were present and he gave them a chance to speak.
West presented a rationale for why the forensics team should remain at SUU.
“I couldn’t tell the students to come or not,” West said. “The fact that they have all come out shows what this means to their lives.”
At the request of the trustees, two members of the forensics team shared their feelings about the program.
“Taking away the program would be taking away the way we live,” said Kayce Rose, a freshman English major from Pleasant Grove. “Every one of these students puts more time into forensics than anything else because of the opportunities it gives us.”
Jessica Nay, a junior communication major from Gunnison, said forensics has a tradition of excellence.
“If this university values higher education, you wouldn’t be cutting a program that reflects higher education,” Nay said.
Most of the trustees wanted to save the program after the presentation or at least wait until the next meeting in May to discuss the issue further. At one point Bennion took his executive council back to his office to further discuss the issue.

In qualifying the need to cut this program because of the budget and not importance, Bennion mentioned that a position in development was also being cut and Provost Abe Harraf said a position in faculty education was cut.
Harraf said there were two vacancies in faculty education because of retirement, and they opted to only fill one.
“If you hold the decision on one program, you are going to have others coming back wanting the same thing,” Bennion said. “We would like to have the budget recommended. If you think this program has different strengths, we could hold this.”
A concern most of the trustees voiced was they did not understand the magnitude or importance of the forensics program when the proposed drop was decided. “This is not a question of a few tears from a few students or what they said that persuaded me,” Lunt said. “It is a question of a program that I had no idea was going to be offered up until this morning. A program that we complimented for many years.”
Lunt alluded to the fact the trustees do not understand all of the background information that administrators do.
“My concern in this whole thing is that I understand this to be a premier program, and in the matter of an hour, it’s going to go,” Lunt said.
Bennion said a lot of ground had been plowed by the administrators and deans who have worked to decide where the cuts should be.
“I know you are frustrated because of the timeliness that you are able to get this information,” Bennion said. “It is difficult to make this decision.”
Trustee Dwanye Nielson said it sends a bad message from the university if administrators take a scholarly program and eliminate it.
“I see our role as trustees to enhance the university,” Nielson said. “We are thrust into this now. The last thing I want to do is show disrespect to the processes of the administration.”
Harraf said he has met with the deans since late February to determine ways money could be saved through the academic departments. Forensics is a program under Harraf’s jurisdiction.
The criteria that Harraf’s committee used to evaluate the need for specific programs was how it influenced students careers and faculty lines.
With the criteria, they then evaluated the all the academic programs.
“We identified areas that could not hurt us immediately,” Harraf said.