Graduate Program Cuts at BGSU

[h2oville rocket]

[quote="Falcon FanaticI fear for the future of education in this state. [/quote]

I fear for it as well, if teachers like you are leaving. Aside from the bizarre fashion choices, that is.

[Falcon Fanatic]

I fear for it as well, if teachers like you are leaving. Aside from the bizarre fashion choices, that is.

Be careful there, h2o, that almost sounded like a compliment!!! (and thanks, btw )

And Tech, this is my 30th year in special education. It truly doesn't seem possible that THAT much time has passed! With two kids at BGSU next year, I really would like stick around at least one more year, but we'll see what STRS tells me in a few weeks when I meet with them. It's a REALLY odd feeling talking about all of this..... And the whole situation in this state just sucks.

[footballguy51]

Tech, I am in the Math program. We weren't listed anywhere on the lists, so these closures and restructures aren't going to have much of an impact on me compared to some other students.

[Flipper]

Welcome to today's reality....the public and private sector are undergoing fundamental restructuring (I'm going to engage in an outrageous simplification here) as the baby boomers exit the workforce and the economy works out the kinks. It isn't pretty and it's going to hurt...but it's inevitable.

Have a nice day!!!

[h2oville rocket]

Welcome to today's reality....the public and private sector are undergoing fundamental restructuring (I'm going to engage in an outrageous simplification here) as the baby boomers exit the workforce and the economy works out the kinks. It isn't pretty and it's going to hurt...but it's inevitable.

Have a nice day!!!

EXCEPT: the baby boomers aren't exiting the job force. Or at least not to the extent that people in their age group have in the past- the largest increase in new jobs recently has been in the 55+ groups. Which begs the question, how many people do you need to greet Walmart customers?

[Rightupinthere]

Mr. Fingerhut and Gov. Strickland were actually guiding this process pretty well. IMHO (and from what I know).

I was in error. I thought this move was the first swing of aligning university services by region. I believe that is coming fairly soon. There is more dog wagging tail than the other way around, according to my local representation. BG is in a budget crisis. This makes sense and the BOR will be more than eager to accept this since it will align very well with their plan for the state college infrastructure.

BTW - As I have been told... if your governor gets his way with the retirement systems, we could lose 25% of our faculty to retirement.

You mean OUR Governor? This is going to sound harsh, Patrick, but are you seven years old? "I didn't vote for him so he's not MY Governor." Bullshit. He is our governor until you moved to Kentucky [where they're building an ark museum with state tax cuts] or Indiana [where manufacturing got destroyed with the last downturn], Kasich is YOUR governor. I didn't vote for O'Bama [I don't like the Irish] but I have never even entertained the notion that he isn't MY president.

Kasich is doing some unpopular stuff. What if it works? Few have calmed their emotional reactions down to look at the big picture. There's a personal stake there, I get it. I counter with "life is life." We review, adjust, and move-on. I make cold statements, but I'm a cold bastert.

[Tech83]

Mark - No.... he's YOUR governor -

[NWLB]

I don’t have any insight into the late History PHD program at BG. I entered the undergrad history program because I had to select a major, and that was the topic I wanted to study. Indeed, I took massively more classes than the degree required, skipping most all of the bone-head intro classes. My last couple of years, I was in a lot of classes that were cross-listed with the 500/600 level grad classes. I knew of the PHD program, that it has some notable quality in terms of being somewhat “unique.” Yet even my instructors were not effusively gung-ho about it. The department simply wasn’t geared to be a graduate mill, or inclined to move beyond the otherwise excellent undergrad foundation. I don’t recall often hearing a professor speak of any “real,” history majors and future graduate studies in the discipline. Rather it was pre-law, even pre-med, even business studies, as career paths leading out of the BGSU degree.

However my degree program was not why I applied to BGSU, in fact I don’t think I even considered the programs when choosing a college. I was one of those kids that wanted a place that felt right, and for whom career was a thing to figure out after getting there. Not everybody follows that path of course.

I think BGSU is doing what is best for its long-term. And as always that requires pain and hurt feelings among those here presently. But in the end, BGSU is a living institution, and as an alum, I value seeing it thrive as best as it can. Yes, as with sports, I’d love to see dozens more graduate programs, sexy academic bragging points, etc. BGSU has to lose some programs now, it will gain some later. It hurts, but that is the way of things. I also see utterly no reason or way a union changes anything going on at BGSU, now or in the long-term. It is just another debating society trying to whip-up a "Coffee Shop Putsch." (Copyright 1994, 2011 NWLB)

[h2oville rocket]

I knew of the PHD program, that it has some notable quality in terms of being somewhat “unique.”

You sure the program wasn't extremely unique?

[1987alum]

If I can live with dropping the "LT" logo for Space Ghost, I can live with some paring of programs if it helps the long-term health of the university.