Greater Alumni Involvement in Program Cuts

It has come to our attention that, due to a recent fiscal shortfall, the administration intends to cut programs and faculty members from the College of Arts & Sciences. While it is understandable that difficult circumstances necessitate difficult decisions, we, as current and former students of the university, humbly request representation in any decision process involving such fundamental changes to the make-up of the University and its academic roster.

Our purposes for requesting this empowerment are both pragmatic and personal. As alumni, we, more than any other group at the university, hold the greatest stake in maintaining Redlands strong national reputation as an interdisciplinary, liberal arts institution. With our degrees from Redlands featuring at the top of our resumes and being an important point in any new business encounter, the academic reputation of the university is, arguably, the single strongest determinant of our failure or success in finding a job, entering graduate school, or establishing professional credentials.

Further, having dedicated many formative years to Redlands, we feel a strong responsibility to ensure the Universitys continued ability to thrive as an institution. Many of us maintain strong personal bonds with the staff, faculty, and student body. Others have long-standing familial connections. Given that, one day, our children may choose to follow in our footsteps and themselves become Bulldogs, we would like to know that the experience of future students at Redlands will continue to be as rich and stimulating as possible. Changes to make-up of Redlands academic programs, therefore, affect us broadly.

While we have great faith in the administration's ability to represent these interests, we are, at the same time, concerned that the logic supporting the current cuts remain opaque and unclear. Further, we worry that certain cuts, such as the elimination of Japanese, do not take full account of the critical role such programs play in supporting Redlands larger academic infrastructure. More alarmingly, bringing an end to such foundational programs threatens to destabilize interdisciplinary departments, such as Asian Studies, as well as the alumni networks that are built around them.

Providing us with more detailed information about the situation and inviting greater alumni inclusion in this process would go a long way to reassure us, and have other potentially positive consequences. The alumni are, after all, the single largest and most diverse pool of knowledge and talent the University has at its disposal. We therefore sincerely petition you to include this collective experience base in the decision-making process. We are confident that, if you do so, Redlands will arrive at the best possible solution to this crisis.