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Two stories in January 16, 2012 Edmonton Journal (both by Sheila Pratt, bless her):
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/faces+staff+cuts+larger+classes/6001362/story.html
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/arts+faculty+getting+short+stick/6001371/story.html
The cuts are “modest” and “there is pain everywhere”–in the same interview. They aren’t modest, Indira, for the women losing their jobs.
“Modest cuts at U of A won’t impact students, President says,”
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/Modest+cuts+impact+students+president+says/6010880/story.html
Edmonton Journal January 17, 2012, story by Sheila Pratt
Here’s one comment as posted on the Edmonton Journal site by “vatera”:
vatera
10:20 PM on 1/17/2012
Modest? Modest? Dr. Samarasekera needs to get up to speed, with all due respect, on the extent of the cuts suffered at the U in recent years–especially in the Arts Faculty. And perhaps she could try to put herself in the shoes of support staff who are waiting for the axe to fall on their jobs in a few weeks. As for students, I guess she isn’t hearing what the SU President is saying about the use of non-tuition fees to get around tuition fee caps. Or what the grad students in Arts are saying–quite publicly–about how the cuts will affect them. “It must be difficult”? You’re just taking a wild guess, are you, President? This really sounds like the 1 per cent speaking to the 99 per cent.
Comment from a reader in response to January 16th 2012 story in Ed Jo on cuts to the Faculty of Arts:
Article Title: Is arts faculty getting short end of the stick at U of A?
Link to Article: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/arts+faculty+getting+short+stick/6001371/story.html
Link to Comment: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/arts+faculty+getting+short+stick/6001371/story.html?plckFindCommentKey=CommentKey:8210f330-2600-4938-b746-a1194127450d
The late Steve Jobs provided a hint to these not sure of the value of arts in college. In 1972 Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland. The college requires every freshman to take humanities program. Jobs’ academic life was short lived but he took a calligraphy class because “… It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.”
Comment from reader of Sheila Pratt’s January 16, 2012 article:
LYFK
6:03 PM on 1/17/2012
As a graduate of both Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design (Applied Arts), I have a unique perspective on the situation and I am deeply saddened by the lack of funding for the Arts, and am reminded of that sadness every time the University calls me for a donation…
A somewhat heavily edited version of my letter was published in the January 21st, 2012 print edition of the Edmonton Journal:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/University+cuts+modest/6031457/story.html