Dozens of Plymouth State University students gathered on campus Tuesday to protest reports the university is considering eliminating 30 faculty positions in the humanities program to meet a budget shortfall.
Junior Oscar Lakowicz, a political science major, said he organized the protest after reading about the potential cuts in The Clock, the school’s student newspaper.
“We wanted to share the message that it’s humanities today, right? It's psychology tomorrow. It's business the next day. It’s criminal justice the day after that,” said Lakowicz, who’s also head of the campus Democrats. “This is a scary, scary staircase of the dismantling of Plymouth State.”
Ethan Dupuis is majoring in history and political science, both in the humanities program and also heads the campus Republicans. He had a message Tuesday for lawmakers as they consider cutting state funding for the public universities and colleges in the next budget.
“I think it's great that we're ranked number one for economic freedom,” he said. “However, I do think that there are certain things in society that need to be funded.”
University President Donald Birx disputed The Clock’s reporting and told NHPR Tuesday that no budget decisions have been made. He acknowledged, however, that all leaders of the state’s other public universities and colleges are facing tough budget decisions.
The University System — which includes the campuses of the University of New Hampshire, Keene State and Plymouth State — announced last month that in-state tuition will be going up for the first time in six years.
Birx said he intends to consider student feedback as he and his team make budget decisions.
“I really celebrate their passion and I feel for them,” he said. “I know there's a lot of concern and rightly so. There's all these concerns across all of higher ed. And I'd say, ‘Hey, join with us. Let's look at what we can do going into the future.’ ”
Lakowicz said that’s not the message students have heard.
“We received absolutely zero communications on how our programs would be managed. All we've been told is that cuts are likely and restructuring is likely,” he said. “But what we have to rely on is this information coming from student newspapers. We have to rely on people coming out leaking this information. So if the administration wants to tackle an issue like this, if they want these protests to cease… I think they need to start communicating clearly with us.”
Senior Joseph Pardee chose Plymouth State University to be near the White Mountains but also for the small class size and tuition, which runs about $14,500 for in-state students and $25,500 for those coming out of state.
“I loved the close knit community that we kind of have each other's backs,” Pardee said.
He’s majoring in psychology and is president of the campus Psychology Club. He alerted his members about the protest.
“It is a mission statement of Psychology Club to better campus culture. And being silent about what's happening will not be bettering campus culture,” he said.