Get the feeling this might be a repetitive story?

Like the Music and Dance, English and Theater Departments discussed in yesterday’s Collegian, the Math and Sociology Departments are both reporting that budget cuts will take a heavy toll on, amongst other things, class offerings. Further damning, both departments may lose upwards of 16 professors to retirements and newly offered early retirement packages.

Randall Stokes, Sociology’s department head, said he could count on six professors leaving his department.

“We’ve got four people opting for early retirement, which is painful because they are concentrated on certain areas of study,” Stokes said. “Two more are leaving because they are fed up with the situation here.”

He also noted that Sociology was losing one secretary – “the front line in relations between students and professors,” as Stokes put it.

Of the four professors retiring early, two were primarily focused in criminology, one of Sociology’s most popular offerings.

“I just don’t see how we can continue certain tracks and concentrations in Sociology,” Stokes said. “Criminal justice may not continue.”

Glumly, Stokes said he didn’t know how the department would “graduate students opting for that concentration.”

As for possible solutions to his problems, Stokes said he hoped that John Cunningham, the University’s associate provost, would get money for departmental stopgap measures. Stokes said he hoped he could ask for bits and pieces of that money, but wondered if doing so was, “anyway to run a department?”

Stokes continued to question his situation, pointing out that he’s eliminated his department’s small honoraria meant for guest speakers, and has watched the University take money that Sociology had saved for a new Xerox machine. In an attempt to put his problems into perspective, or perhaps to make clear how dire his situation is, Stokes explained the problem he’s been having in putting together next Fall’s course schedule.

“I have eight courses that are absolutely pivotal to our undergraduates. They need these classes to graduate on time,” he said. “But instead of knowing what professors are going to teach those classes, I have question marks beside all eight.”

In case the seriousness of the story was lost, he concludes that if he doesn’t find professors, “I’ll have to cancel these classes required for our majors.”

Of the six professors Stokes is losing, two of them taught the Sociology department’s Junior year writing requirement, while others constituted half of his statistics faculty. He will also lose research methodology faculty. To put his situation into the starkest possible terms, Stokes relied on numbers alone.

“Here’s what’s going to happen if we don’t get some sort of relief. We have space for 3,300 students per semester. If we don’t get the ability to hire someone, if we stay where we are at right now, we will have 2,350 spaces, an almost 1,000 student decline,” Stokes said.

Like most department heads, Stokes will gather his faculty for a meeting to discuss possible solutions. At the Feb. 12 meeting, Stokes expects his faculty to be quite upset.

“I don’t think this has sunk in entirely. I’m not sure that the faculty is aware,” Stokes said. “When I release the fall schedule with blanks in it though, then they’ll be quite upset.”

Or when they read this article.

Joining Stokes is Math’s John Sicks. As that department’s Assistant Head, Sicks is coming to grips with a situation that he didn’t expect to get as bad as it has. Sicks said he had never considered the possible damage of early retirement.

“We’re staggered, we’re trying to imagine how we can deal with the impact,” Sicks said, referring to the department’s numbers of early retirements, which he said could be “anywhere from eight to 10.

“We don’t exactly know what’s going to happen in the end, but looking at the number of early retirements, when combined with our three regular retirements, it could have all have devastating effects,” Sicks said.

To further complicate matters, the professors expected to leave teach a wide variety of classes, from incoming students all the way to PhD-seeking students. And while Stokes could lose upwards of 1,000 seats in classes offered, Sicks suggested that the professors leaving taught more than 3,000 students per year.

“How does one prepare for this?” Sicks asked.

Unlike Stokes, Sicks has already had his departmental meeting.

“We had a faculty meeting on Monday and we have a committee of faculty getting together to try to figure out what we could possible do, but our morale?” Sicks said. “It’s bad. We’re walking around in shock.”

Unlike his fellow departmental administrators, Sicks reported that this semester would go off relatively hitch-free. Lest that sound too optimistic, he warned, “it’s next year that looks impossible.”

Great.