STEVENS POINT, WI (WSAU) — More than 150 packed into the Dreyfus University Center on the campus of UW-Stevens Point to discuss the proposed cuts to certain majors the university is discussing. The meeting was co-hosted by the Student Government Association for UWSP and State Representative Katrina Shankland.
Dozens of people took the opportunity to speak at the meeting. Rep. Shankland says he biggest takeaway from the meeting is that everyone is concerned about these cuts, not just those who are in the majors.
“They believe that the value of a university degree is vested in or comes from that comprehensive education where you’re learning the arts, the humanities, social sciences, natural resources, water resources, physics, and math,” said Shankland. “That’s what really important and that’s the value of the four-year degree.”
Shankland says that there will be more discussion about the proposed budget cuts happening again on Thursday.
Nicholas Kositzke is the Legislative Affairs Director for the Student Government Association for UWSP. He shares his biggest takeaway from the meeting.
He said, “That there are a lot of students that are very, very unhappy about this and that there’s going to need to be a lot of discussion before this proposal can be accurately voted on.”
Kositzke says each year a group of students go to legislative offices at the capital to lobby on issues that students believe are important and he believes this will be one of the bigger issues for this year’s trip.
In total 34 people spoke at the meeting, all of them saying that they are not in favor of the cuts to the liberal arts majors.
A final decision on the cuts will be made in August.
