LETTER: Cutting degrees lowers diversity

To the editor:

    The economy is forcing budget cuts and wiser use of financial resources in many areas. One area is that of education. Unfortunately great schools like Utah State are also forced to overcome financial hurdles. Utah State offers many different programs, bringing a variety of students and creating the diversity of people and ideas that makes those who are enrolled glad to call themselves Aggies.
    The proposed budget cuts include restructuring departments and some of the majors within those departments. Departments like HASS have considered dropping their less popular degrees. What about those students who came to USU solely because they offer a specific degree? Many of these students would be lost if less popular options were dropped. Diversity among the student body would also be lost if these programs were dropped. Every student at USU has something unique that only they can offer. There are better alternatives to saving money than dropping programs.
    I attended discourses given by several lecturers last semester, while it is great to hear from someone new I could have gone without hearing them. Especially with how much money USU would save by bringing in graduate students, rather than paid lecturers. I’ve found through experience that it’s easier for me to relate with graduate students than with some famous person that wrote some book that sold x amount of copies. Graduate students can present the information we as students need to know without all the extra fluff and irrelevant material that you usually get from lecturers. If USU can bring in four graduate students for the same amount of money they would need to bring in one lecturer it would be money smart to start using our graduate students more often.

Taylor Read