Budget cuts cut into learning

Catherine Revel | Contributing Writer

I have been a Seahawk for four years. I’ve always loved this school and how fairly funds have been allocated among each department. Until this year. The UNCW budget was cut by 15.8 percent bringing our annual budget to $89 million. I honestly didn’t think I would feel the budget cuts as severely as I have so far this year.

New flat screen TVs were installed in Hawks Nest over the summer to display the various menus of the locations in the Nest. This doesn’t seem like an appropriate way to wisely use our (recently raised) tuition; especially when, for 2011, UNCW had to eliminate the equivalent of 147 full-time positions.

I personally was told I couldn’t return to my job as the Morton lab proctor because it would cost the English department too much money because I was not a work-study student. My parents have an income too high to qualify for certain financial aid, but too low to adequately and comfortably pay for my tuition. Something has to give.

The only things that seem to be giving, however, are the amenities that used to be included in our tuition. For my first three years here, the library was open for 24 hours, with the exception of Friday nights. Now, I have to leave the library at 2 a.m, along with the rest of my peers. Funny thing though, when I leave the library at that late hour (and when the library was closed on Labor Day) the computers are all still on and so are the overhead lights. I feel as if that’s not a very prudent use of our recently cut-back budget.

I know that working with a smaller budget is affecting all North Carolina schools, and it is difficult to make everyone happy. But we, the students who are actually paying for this higher education, are being affected in such negative ways it’s becoming detrimental to our learning environment.