Give input on liberal arts budget cuts

By The Liberal Arts College Tuition and Budget Advisory Committee, Daily Texan Guest Columnist
Published: Monday, January 24, 2011

To the Students of the University of Texas,

We are writing this letter in the hopes of establishing an open dialogue about the recent budget cuts with students, faculty and administration. We are members of the Liberal Arts College Tuition and Budget Advisory Committee (CTBAC), and our role is to bring student opinion and voice into this dialogue. CTBAC originated as a student-led initiative, proposed by the Senate of College Councils and supported by the administration.

The committee is composed of a diverse group of both undergraduate and graduate Liberal Arts students. We are confident that we can bring the diversity of the College of Liberal Arts to this complicated issue. Members of CTBAC were selected through a rigorous application and interview process, which ensured a group of students that is dedicated to contributing student opinion to budgetary process.

We are treading new ground, as this is the first time that students have had a voice in this process. The Deans have asked that we develop our own recommendations for the next round of budget issues. As we continue to work to gain more information regarding student opinion, we will hold regular meetings as a forum to facilitate the voice of students. Additionally, we will hold open meetings in order to be transparent and engage directly with students. We recognize that this will be a long and difficult process, but we are dedicated to the importance of this endeavor.

We would like to stress that we are not the Academic Planning Advisory Committee, which is the committee established to provide faculty input on budgetary issues, and that we operate independently from them. As students ourselves, we represent a different focus than APAC and we hope to bring our own perspective to the budget discussions. APAC has made recommendations on proposed cuts to liberal arts centers. However, these are their recommendations, not the recommendations of CTBAC. Our committee is working to develop our own budgetary recommendations. No final decisions have been made regarding proposed budget cuts, and none will be made without including the opinions of students. This stresses the importance of CTBAC in linking the opinions of students to the Dean’s decisions.

We would like to extend an invitation to all students to attend the Liberal Arts State of the College Student Forum being held today at 6 PM in UTC 2.102. The forum is being hosted by the Liberal Arts Council, and the members of CTBAC will also be present. The administration in attendance will include Dean Randy Diehl, in addition to many others. The forum will cover a variety of topics, including the new Liberal Arts building and the college budget, as well as giving students an opportunity to ask questions and voice their opinions. We hope that you can attend this forum as it will be an excellent opportunity to gain new information and insight in regard to the complex budgetary issues that face our College and University.

We will continue to work hard to bring student opinion to this process. Students have already made apparent the importance of these issues, and we hope that students will remain passionate and involved.

Sincerely,
The members of the Liberal Arts College Tuition and Budget Advisory Committee