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Academic Program Prioritization Group

Orono, Maine


Monday afternoon, students flooded into the Wells Conference to discuss the consolidation and removal of many majors at the University of Maine. This plan, if followed through, will delete majors such as foreign language, theater, public administration and many others. Also, this downsizing will leave many professors at the university out of work. As the deans of each college opened the floor for questions, students expressed their frustration with this new plan. Although this plan, not active until 2014, will not immediately effect the current students in the majors, they feel that cutting these programs will be very detrimental to future students.
Being in a Spanish program at the University of Maine myself, I feel that removing the foreign language majors will have a negative impact on future students. Although there will still be a select few courses given, students will not be able to enter the higher level courses available now. Without these high level programs, students will not be able to advance their skills to a level that is necessary to use it in a real world situation. Without these skills in foreign language, students at the University of Maine will be unable to communicate with those in other businesses around the world. We have been raised to learn to be accepting of others and their cultures but with the removal of this program, students will grow to be ignorant of others based on lack of knowledge. This is just one example of the cuts that will put students at a disadvantage over other schools when it is time to enter the work world.
Although some may feel these cuts are necessary for the university to save money, the cons outweigh the pros in this situation. I feel that, after attending this meeting, students have strongly expressed their opinions and have done all the convincing they can do to try and save these programs. The passionate students hopefully have made a strong impact on the deans of these colleges in a way that will make them reevaluate their plan. These deans need to remember their number one priority here: the students education.