Focused Inquiry department cuts 14 professors

Jack Glagola, Contributing Writer

The university has laid off 14 faculty in the Focused Inquiry department, according to a petition lodged by United Campus Workers of Virginia. 

The union represents college and university workers at three schools in Virginia, according to its website. 

Emily Williams, an assistant professor in the Focused Inquiry department, said the layoffs have already affected morale in the department.

“Everybody is feeling really fragile and tenuous. Obviously, faculty do their jobs best when they feel supported by the university to do it,” Williams said.

Focused Inquiry courses are offered to first and second year students as part of the general education program. The classes have averaged 19 students per instructor for several years, but will be increasing to 23 or 25, according to Williams.

“That also means a slightly smaller percentage of professors’ time per student, and a greater amount of work for faculty in terms of giving students feedback on their writing, their research and working with them on those projects,” Williams said.

The number of students may not be the only change this semester, Williams said.

“I don’t think anyone in our department wants to cut down on our courses. That will be something that faculty are ultimately forced to do despite not wanting to or not really believing it’s in the best interest of students, but just not having the manpower otherwise,” Williams said.

Williams said the layoffs are part of a larger problem in higher education as a whole. 

“They tend to pin some of those [budgetary concerns] on the question of a looming enrollment cliff — the fact that there are just going to be fewer students of college age in a few years,” Williams said.

She said that there are budgetary choices being made that do not put students first. For example, the university conducts searches to find new executive administrators, and pay existing ones high salaries, she said.

“It becomes more of a top-heavy corporate model of education,” she said.

Emalie Snowdall, a fourth-year painting and printmaking student, said that faculty cuts in the university compromise education.

“I’ve been hearing about layoffs for a bunch of other departments, especially for the art departments. A lot of classes have been canceled as a result — not just the UNIV classes — and those are classes that people actually need,” Snowdall said.

Isabel Debruler, a fourth year computer science major, said she liked being able to do something different in her Focused Inquiry classes. 

“I did this project where I made this book, and that was kind of weird. I didn’t really understand the point of that — it was really strange, and I kind of liked it,” Debruler said.

Debruler said that despite there being more students than ever attending VCU — to the point that some are staying in a hotel — they are still making cuts.

“It’s kind of strange to see,” Debruler said.

Stewart Anderson, a fourth-year mass communications student, said that smaller-scale classes like Focused Inquiry require an emphasis on professor-student interaction.

“It’s just a little ridiculous that we’re going to pack fewer classes with more students and take away more opportunities from professors who aren’t tenured or anything,” Anderson said.

The VCU chapter of United Campus Workers had a rally in Monroe Park last Friday. Several members of the Focused Inquiry faculty, as well as other professors, graduate students and passers-by, were in attendance.

Kristin Reed, an assistant professor in the department, headed the rally with a speech highlighting the union’s aims and goals for students and faculty alike. 

“Administration announced the intent to fire 14 people. That hurts students, that hurts our community, that hurts people who have lived in this city for years, that hurts people who got their degrees at VCU, that hurts people who have taught at this institution for decades,” Reed said.

Not far from the rally, on the streets lining Monroe Park, incoming students — accompanied by their parents — moved into their dorms. 

Assistant professor Amber Pearson said this provided an opportunity to increase visibility.

“We want people outside VCU to know about this and it can be really hard to reach people like parents who also have a vested interest in what is going on in this community,” Pearson said.

Courtney Sviatko, an instructor in the department, said after the rally that the organizing faculty’s demand is for administration to put students and educators first. 

“The two essential things you need for education are teachers and students and those are the things they seem to not be caring about right now,” Sviatko said.

Sviatko said that she wants VCU’s public-facing image to be more than just an image.

“We want all of that to be real, not just a couple of pretty metal signs. We want the things that happen inside the classrooms, inside the doors, inside the offices to actually reflect that message,” Sviatko said.