Excerpted below is an article announcing a decision to cut instructional budgets at the University of North Carolina, where I was a professor for over 30 years at UNC-Chapel Hill. Instead of using their considerable investment in IT over the past few years to offer high demand academic programs and courses for online delivery while simultaneously applying the common course redesign strategy to improve learning and reduce direct instructional expenses in high-demand introductory courses -- thus, increasing the teaching capacity of the existing faculty and classroom plant -- the UNC system and institutions appear instead to have decided not to embrace such productivity innovations and now have opted to cut instructional budgets in favor of investing new state resources in other priorities.
UNC to cut spending on courses, faculty advisers
Chapel Hill (The Associated Press), November 14, 2005
The University of North Carolina will cut spending for student instruction by $16.4 million this year despite more state money for many priorities across the 16-campus system, including for building repairs and raises for state employees. At UNC-Chapel Hill, budget cuts this year led to elimination of 46 class offerings. At N.C. State University, 60 of the course sections have been eliminated and science labs will have fewer materials. At N.C. Central University, money for teaching supplies was cut. The fewer course sections and greater class sizes mean that students will struggle to complete their studies within four years, says a report issued this week by the UNC system. "Ironically, unavoidable reductions in advising and faculty contact hours means that many students will have less assistance in monitoring their degree progress at a time when it becomes much more difficult and critical to do so," said the 2005-06 Budget Reductions Report. Read more ...
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