Discontinuing programs would hurt students

We all came to MSU with the idea that this university would propel us into the professional world equipped with the best tools available. We would head out into the world with knowledge from the smartest professors and experience from the best available internships. After all, we are Spartans.

Now, as students, we find ourselves questioning the values of our university as budget cuts loom overhead.

Recently, MSU announced there will be program cuts in at least 10 different colleges, including doctoral and master programs, with 19 possible undergraduate discontinuations. Geological sciences, communicative sciences and disorders, veterinary technology and general business administration are just a few listed on the chopping block. These programs add value in many ways and contribute to MSU’s reputation.

MSU is known as an agricultural school. When the world around us is promoting sustainability, for MSU, which ranks in the top five for an eco-friendly campus, cutting science programs only depletes our chances of further research. It seems odd that we find ourselves facing the guillotine in areas that focus on land grants and research — areas that define MSU in the first place.

Being a research university is a point of pride for MSU. However, while the university questions the effects that these cuts could have on the reputation of our school and debates the overall outcome of its decisions, the students enrolled in majors that could be cut or downsized are left standing in a gray area. When it comes to these inevitable cuts, students already enrolled in these programs will question the university’s plans for accommodation.

Let’s say MSU eliminates the communicative sciences and disorders major. Students will have no concrete answers as to their remaining future at MSU. What will happen to those credit hours already received? Will they transfer into a different major offered? Will students be forced to commit to more school than their budget allows? In a worst case scenario, they might even transfer schools, taking with them the much-needed money promised to MSU.

In this day and age, students already are strapped for cash and can’t always depend on their parents’ support — switching majors and taking extra credit hours required of new programs is a luxury many students cannot afford. It’s not fair to students who want to continue their chosen path — the path that encouraged them to choose MSU in the first place.

But what about those who did graduate from a place that eradicated their program? For example, MSU is planning to entirely cut the music therapy program. Companies and other organizations hiring music therapy students might not think much of a graduate who studied at a university that no longer saw the importance of such a program, and thus eliminated it. These graduates could find themselves in jobless situations. A rather risky endeavor in an already wavering society.

MSU has plenty of options to explore when considering cuts. Programs that will be discontinued shouldn’t place students in a murky situation when considering their future.

Spartans trusted MSU to give them the best — to make them the best. Now, MSU is saying some of their major programs won’t even make the cut. We guess this isn’t the Sparta we had in mind.