Ben Knuesel, Northern Student Writer
Changes are happening all over Bemidji State University this year and next year will be no different. It is quite obvious that BSU has a budget deficit that needs to be taken care of and action needs to be taken.
A new president, Dr. Richard Hanson, has been brought in to make the proper adjustments that may not be too popular to everyone involved. According to one of his messages, the decision involving the budget cuts, was a “measured approach” and was trying to lay down a path for the future of both BSU and NTC.
Programs are being cut and professors are being laid off. Majors are being lost in this new adjustment and therefore, some students are getting caught in the middle of an ugly side of Bemidji State University.
The industrial technology college and performing arts are the two main programs that are looking to be cut. According to what has been said lately, the new image looks like next year will be a more narrow study of business and communication at BSU.
Jay Moran, a freshman student in the construction management program, said, “I came to BSU because I knew that this is what I wanted to do and Bemidji offered a great program, but now I have to look someplace else.” Moran is choosing to transfer to a competitor of BSU, the University of Minnesota-Duluth. UMD has offered many of the same programs that BSU has and is much larger providing many more opportunities than BSU, making UMD somewhat of a tough competitor.
When asked if he knew of many others that were being affected by this change he said, “well obviously everyone else in my major, but also the students who had already planned on living together next year now no longer have their room mates.”
Brody Pappenfuss, a sophomore studying history, transferred here last year from Southeast Technical College because the program here was better and now has to transfer to Winona State University.
Pappenfuss said, “ I didn’t really know what to do, because I came up here just for that and now I have to leave.” He will end up living back at home in Winona, where he had said he wanted to get away from, and there he will try to finish up at WSU.
Jacqueline Teegarden, a sophomore at Bemidji State University in the visual arts program is moving down to Minnesota State University-Mankato, another competitor which offers many of the same programs and opportunities as BSU, in Minnesota. She said, “ I will be moving down to Mankato in mid summer with two others from BSU and we will all finish up down there.”
Teegarden has been in numerous plays and musicals through campus and is very passionate about her studies, but she has no place here anymore. She also went on to say, “I don’t think that it’s very fair to the students currently in these programs and Bemidji State is really making a big mistake on closing out the unique opportunities that it has provided in the past.”
Others like Jacqueline took action and voiced their opinion in a protest, on February 2, when a group of fine arts students and others gathered in front of BSU’s Deputy Hall. Students held signs and chanted protests that rang throughout the campus. Many students think they know what they want, and they don’t think that this decision is the answer. What do you think?
