In a special forum on Tuesday, graduate students voiced concerns about ASU’s announcement that the Graduate School of Education will be combined with the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College.Kelley Stewart, a graduate student in the Graduate School of Education, said her first response to the merger was an emotional one.
“I kept thinking, ‘Not my school,’” Stewart said. “The student voice was nowhere in this.”
At the forum, Stewart raised concerns about her college, which focuses on higher and post-secondary education, being merged into a college that focuses primarily on K-12 education. There are about 1,300 graduate students in the College of Education.
Stewart said there is still not a clear picture of how changes to the program will work.
“I believe our program will survive, but in what form or shape, I’m unsure,” Stewart said.
ASU officials have said the cuts will have no impact on students and are purely an administrative restructuring. Part of that will include laying off about 100 staff members.
“No impact is not the message,” Stewart said. “Maybe low impact, but anytime you lose staff, there are going to be delays and confusion.”
One big concern among students was that administration did not seem to seek student feedback before making the decision, Stewart said.
Graduate student Silvia Nogueron said it was reassuring to see a large turnout.
“Seeing faculty there was good too, showing their concern for students,” she said.
The forum, hosted by GPSA, allowed about 140 students in attendance to address members of administration and deans of the University’s education colleges.
In addition to the Graduate School of Education changes, the Department of Kinesiology, School of Health Management and Policy and School of Design Innovation will be disestablished if a budget-cutting University proposal passes.
The plan was made to meet an Arizona Board of Regents mandate to reduce ASU’s salary budget by 2.75 percent, or roughly $5 to $6 million. All measures are pending approval by ABOR in May.
Justin Boren, president of GPSA, led the event, saying graduate students will be greatly affected by these cuts.
“We were incredibly disappointed [by the decision],” Boren said. “Graduate students are the ones who are going to feel these cuts the most.”
Confusion and frustration emerged as some of the main themes of the forum, Boren said.
ASU spokeswoman Sharon Keeler said the proposed cuts would only impact the University’s administrative structure, not students.
“The University took particular care to make sure students were not affected,” she said.
Each college that faces disestablishment or being combined with another will allow professors to self-select a different program to work under, but there will be no layoffs, Keeler said.
“The faculty are the ones who create graduate programs,” Boren said. “Graduate students come to the University to work with specific faculty.”
Marjorie Baldwin, director of the School of Health Management and Policy, said it’s good the programs will still be available for students.
“Fortunately for our department, there are some spots open and it appears most of our staff will find positions,” she said.
However, students might have to use services in a different department, causing inconvenience, Baldwin said.
Right now, her school, like many other colleges, offers services like admissions, which saves students from going through a larger system.
That could change, Baldwin said, as the disestablishments would eliminate services from within her department, forcing students to go elsewhere.
Reach the reporter at kpatton4@asu.edu
