I saw Anderson Cooper tonight. As a student of SJMC you should just know it's kind of a big deal. I will gush about it during the weeks ahead, but there are much more pressing matters at hand.

I saw Anderson Cooper tonight. As a student of SJMC you should just
know it's kind of a big deal. I will gush about it during the weeks
ahead, but there are much more pressing matters at hand.

The recession is coming. We have to face the reality that as Americans
we will have to surrender some luxuries for the greater good of our
future and the future of our communities. The most prominent of the
changes in my life are affecting the education of myself and my peers
at Florida International University.

I am on my phone so I will be giving details sparingly. But the jist
of the meeting was that to combat the greater consequences of waiting
to do something. The administration feels that the best course if
action is to be upfront about every alteration they plan to implement
in the coming months to combat the gaps that the budget will be
facing. It also stresses that the programs are not going to be cut
across the board equally because mediocre programs will just do more
damage to the university's future. With that said here is a brief
insight into the three year plan that isn't finalized but in the
process of proposal.

FIU 3.0
We have an operating cost of about 677 Million Dollars.
299 million dollars of that money comes from the state.

The state is cutting 19% at the College level. FIU is only losing 4%
of their budget. It may not seem like a lot but the way it was
explained that even if we do make some more money down the road we
will be only using to pay off the debt we've been undertaking. So
items for consideration have been placed in 4 priorities for both
educational programs and university utilities which utilize 13.5
million dollars of our budget.
Here are the program priorities:
1. Arts & Sciences (The New school of medicine's budget cannot be
redirected towards any other program. It is priority one because
medicine is what will help to make FIU one of the top research schools
and therefore garner more money from the state.)
P2 -nursing/ hospitality / honors programs
P3- law, business, international studies, journalism, engineering and
Architecture
P4- Centers and institutes.

So we have to say goodbye completely to some centers and institutes.

What does this mean for SJMC and my student body. At the very least we
will be restructured and join other schools like Architecture as a way
to consolidate our resources. But that's at the very least. We could
still lose professors, lose class availability, and so much more. But
as it stands we remain visible to the administrators. A student gave a
very passionate speech and tore the Provost a new one. LOL I will have
to edit this out later of course. But it seems we have a V for
Vendetta for the provost because he might not deem our program
necessary to the future of FIU. But we will fight it. If it's one
thing the SJMC school can do well, it's a campaign. And how good will
this look on our resume's?Well kiddies, I am pooped. Today was a whole
mix of emotions. Please keep reading, keep updating, and keep
thinking. We need solutions to the problem, which I will be discussing
at length in tomorrow's post.

My finger is all typed out.
One world. One love. One heart.

Sent from my iPhone

N. Valentine