The street sign between Abbott Road and Charles Street still reads M.A.C. Avenue, so it seems odd MSU's first move to make up for the $5-million state budget cut might be to terminate the agricultural engineering department.

How quickly we forget our former name of Michigan Agricultural College.

MSU doesn't plan to do away with the major altogether. Officials plan to dissolve the department, spreading students and faculty into other engineering programs, in order to make the College of Engineering more efficient.

The university has plans to blend three other departments into one: park recreation and tourism resources, resource development and agriculture and natural resources education and communication systems.

Given MSU's historical foundation on agriculture, it seems odd to have that department become the first possibly cut. Faculty and students are concerned the distribution throughout the College of Engineering takes away from the credibility and unity the students joined the program for in the first place.

For a school that is founded on agriculture, it's shocking to see agricultural engineering is the first department ushered to the chopping block. Throughout its history, MSU has expanded to a broader focus, but it was founded on agricultural research and development. It is something the university proudly promotes and should not forget.

Cutting a department so important to the university threatens the safety of all colleges at MSU. Less enrollment in a certain major might result in a loss of funding, which could turn students away from the university.

Of all the other majors and departments to terminate, the reasoning behind picking agriculture seems shaky. Obviously, now would be a crucial time for the university to combine some departments and create a more efficiently run university, but agriculture seems like an unlikely target given MSU's history.