Aligned on the sidewalk in front of the UC and the UT College of Law, students and workers rallied to end budget cuts at UT. The crowd urged state government to look toward internal revenue streams and money from the federal government’s economic stimulus package to aid the university.
Ralliers held various signs, including one saying, “Save Tennessee’s economy. Support higher education,” as the assembled chanted, “Stop the cuts.”
United Campus Workers sponsored the rally. Janet Miles, UT administrative secretary and vice president of the Knoxville chapter of United Campus Workers, explained the protestors’ point of view.
“There isn’t anything left to cut,” Miles said. “We are significantly underfunded, almost across the board. Even with our current staffing levels, we are looking at many, many students — probably half if not more — taking five years to graduate.”
One example she cited was how the university had the same amount of workers in environmental health and safety as the Knoxville Utilities Board had in one shift.
Jon Shefner, associate professor in sociology, said that, if there are no university cuts left to make that would not eliminate essential elements of the university, UT could look to other revenue streams for relief. These included money from the state rainy day fund, corporate tax loopholes and funding from the federal government’s stimulus package.
As to why the state has not tapped into the rainy day fund for university aid already, Shefner said he didn’t know.
“I don’t have a good answer for that,” he said. “It’s raining here. We’re all getting real wet, so I don’t have a good answer for that. I would assume there’s a plan to use some of that. I think we’re all encouraging the governor to use more of that, as much of that as possible.”
If the current UT proposals are implemented, Miles said, the Tennessee economy is set up to suffer.
“Well, what the administration is proposing is to cut UT’s staff to have fewer people teaching, to have fewer people supporting,” Miles said. “That’s going to make it harder for students to graduate. The longer it takes students to graduate, the longer it is before they are working and bringing money in, the longer it is before corporations are saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got an educated populus. Let’s locate in Tennessee. Let’s bring some jobs. That would be a good place to settle in that will bring jobs into the state.’ Cutting higher education is going to cut the chances for that kind of job growth, for that kind of economic growth.”
Holly Rainey, sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Progressive Student Alliance, said the organization took a petition to UT President John Petersen on Tuesday, asking him to sign it. He did not and neither did two other vice presidents when asked.
Calling himself both a customer and an employee, Les Essif is a professor in modern foreign languages and literatures, as well as the father of two UT students. He spoke to those assembled about the result of Petersen’s decisions.
“The president thinks, he does think, ‘I’ve got to make those tough and oh-so-unpopular decisions. We’ve got to merge departments, increase class sizes, downsize faculty and staff, increase workload,’” Essif said. “All this despite the calamitous consequences of these actions — consequences to the lives of the people that run the institution and to the quality of instruction it provides, and consequences to the eventual professional competence of those who receive their diplomas from UT.”
Essif said, while some UT students, faculty and staff suffer under the cuts, others aren’t as affected. The gap between the highest- and lowest-paid has become larger over the years, despite cuts and less funding.
“The headline of last ... Wednesday’s Beacon, reads, ‘Students and unemployed suffer under the economy,’” he said. “You might imagine as well the poor and the lowest-paid suffer. But you can’t imagine a headline that would say, ‘The wealthy, the governor, the UT president and vice president suffer under the economy.’ How about ‘UT football program suffers under the economy’?”