CLARIFICATION APPENDED

The first wave of budget reductions announced across the Faculty of Arts and Sciences this week has unnerved professors worried about the next round of cost-cutting measures—even as this round has left faculty members largely unscathed.

Most professors interviewed by The Crimson yesterday said they were not surprised by Monday’s announcement, adding that they agreed with a bulk of the cutbacks—including ending exam proctor positions and the reduction of hot breakfast options.

Government professor Steven R. Levitsky joked that although he has yet to peruse the budget cut Web site, he was glad to hear that shuttle service has been cut back.

“Students need to walk the frickin’ seven minutes from the Quad to the Yard,” he quipped in a phone interview yesterday. “Lazy students.”  [SEE CLARIFICATION BELOW]

But some emphasized that the Faculty needs to be wary of the impact on its educational mission as the administration initiates more cuts in the future.

The $77 million in cost-cutting measures announced on Monday represents only a third of the total $220 million annual deficit that FAS administrators hope to close by July 2011. FAS will embark on its next stage of reductions—dubbed “reshaping” by FAS Dean Michael D. Smith—in the coming months to make up the remaining $143 million.

“This doesn’t seem to have much to do with departments or centers or programs, so this seems to be very much around the edges,” said Classics professor Richard F. Thomas as he gestured towards the list of cutbacks on the Web site. “So the obvious question is, where next?”

In an interview Monday, Smith said that FAS administrators would look seriously into the possibility of merging academic departments or consolidating certain centers and libraries.

Smith’s mantra of “reshaping” could mean the diminishment, consolidation, or even elimination of certain departments, Thomas said, calling smaller academic departments that could be at risk one of the Faculty’s greatest strengths.

Some professors said that they believe Smith may be interested in reducing the size of the Faculty—a fear confirmed by Smith, who said the Faculty will shrink, as the number of faculty searches falls short of the number of professors set to retire.

There will be 19 junior faculty searches next year—with none at the senior level—and the Provost’s Office and Office of Faculty Affairs are currently discussing the possibility of implementing a retirement incentive package for faculty, according to Smith.

One change from this week that did concern Thomas was a suggested increase in section size as a result of “close scrutiny” of the allocation of teaching assistants and teaching fellows. At a town hall forum on Monday, Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris said the College plans to make its current target maximum number of students per section more of an “average.”

“It’s inevitable, from the looks of it, that a certain amount of that is going to happen,” Thomas said. “One just has to try and limit it so that it doesn’t lead to the deterioration of the [educational] mission.”

Biology and geology professor Charles Marshall said that because a University used to expansion now finds itself in “uncharted territory,” it may not be prepared to make wise decisions concerning planned cuts.

“For an institution that prides itself on not changing, there are going to be lots of shocks,” Marshall said. “It might actually be quite healthy for the institution to experience change...It tends to rest on its laurels a little too frequently.”

—Staff writer Bonnie J. Kavoussi can be reached at kavoussi@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Esther I. Yi can be reached at estheryi@fas.harvard.edu.

CLARIFICATION

The May 13 news article "Wary Professors Eye Next Wave of Cutbacks" incorrectly implied that Professor Steven R. Levitsky was being completely serious in his remarks about how students should respond to the cutbacks. In fact, he says the remarks were meant in jest, and the text online has been changed to reflect that sentiment.