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Nov.15, 2002

Students to voice comments on cuts
by Kaitlin Bell, The Dartmouth Staff

According to an agreement worked out with Student Assembly executives last
night, College Provost Barry Scherr will consider student input on the
proposed budget cuts before the cuts are finalized later in the year.
Both the executives and Scherr were optimistic about this opportunity for
communication between students and the administration but said that students'
impact will be limited by a need to cut a certain amount from the budget.
Sometime before the end of Fall term, Scherr will provide the Assembly with a
letter outlining the cuts to be made in each area. The Assembly will then
collect feedback from students, which it will summarize in a report slated to
be presented to Scherr by the beginning of Winter term.
Scherr has also agreed to meet with the Assembly at large after they receive
his report, and again after he receives theirs.
Assembly executives said the agreement provides students with a rare
opportunity to have their opinions about the budget heard and carefully
considered by administrators.
"It's huge that the administration has given us a window of opportunity to
respond," Student Life Committee Chair Amit Anand '03 said. "That's something
that's hardly ever been seen in recent student government history -- hardly
ever has the administration taken the students so seriously."
Academic Affairs Committee Chair Jonathan Lazarow '05 said students have
largely felt left out of the budget process -- something he believes Scherr
aims to remedy through his arrangement with the Assembly.
"I think he realized that there were some mistakes in the way the budget cuts
were handled," Lazarow said. "Especially during interim between Summer and
Fall terms, there was a lack of communication with students."
Scherr said the comment period was being made in recognition of these types
of student sentiments..
"What the students are expressing to me is that there hasn't been much room
for student input," Scherr said. "What I'm trying to do is allow for a way
for students to express their concerns. I'll consider these and work from
there."
But Scherr said that while he remains open to student input and will
seriously consider the Assembly's report, he is limited by a need to trim a
certain basic amount from the budget.
Furthermore, his letter to the Assembly will be based on recommendations made
by campus department heads, who likely have an accurate sense of what kind of
cuts their departments can realistically sustain. For this reason, the cuts
proposed in his letter are unlikely to be significantly altered by student
input, unless students come out uniformly opposed to a specific cuts.
"One assumes that the department heads have made the best suggestions they
can," Scherr said, adding that "overwhelming" student consensus on one issue
would be most influential.
That area of united opinion , Lazarow said, will almost certainly be the
library cuts, which have received vocal criticism from both students and
faculty.
"Everybody's concerned with the libraries," Lazarow said. "That is the one
overwhelming issue that's going to come back to us -- we know it and the
provost knows it."
But Lazarow said he is not optimistic that even an outpouring of student
criticism will be successful in eliminating the library cuts.
"No matter how much we kick and scream, certain cuts have to be made and I
think [College Librarian Richard] Lucier has made that pretty clear," he
said. "But maybe we can get the administration to cut different things."
The Assembly will compile its summary of student opinions by conducting
surveys, polls and holding one-on-one sessions with students, Anand said. The
exact method of collecting information will likely be decided by a resolution
presented at next Tuesday's Assembly meeting, he added.
But both Scherr and the executives stressed that the budget will remain open
to change even after the Assembly submits its proposal in the winter.
"As the provost likes to say, there's no such word as final," Lazarow said.

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