City Planning may be next to face axe

The departmental axe is grinding again and, this time, the Graduate School of Fine Arts may bear the brunt. GSFA Dean Patricia Conway said closing the City and Regional Planning Department was one suggestion proposed at a Tuesday meeting of the school's standing faculty. Conway listened to "a number of suggestions" at the meeting, which she called to address possible remedies for GSFA's pressing financial problems. She said the department has consistently been forced to run a deficit. But many faculty and students said closing the department is not the solution. City and Regional Planning Chairperson Anthony Tomazinis said faculty at Tuesday's meeting were "up in arms" and expressed "with the strongest possible words" their anger and disappointment that such a cut is being considered. "It's a total surprise. No one ever contemplated this," Tomazinis said. Tomazinis said his department is being singled out for "supposed or claimed" deficit problems. Conway emphasized that no final cuts have been made. But, Tomazinis said, the dean implied that closing the department would be "the most appropriate solution" to the deficit problem. GSFA students had heard about the suggestion only by talking to professors or by hearing what trickled "through the grapevine." In a separate meeting, Conway talked with a group of concerned students about rumors that the department would close – rumors heard prior to Tuesday's faculty meeting. According to a summary prepared by the dean's office of the meeting with students, which also was held Tuesday, Conway said the University can no longer be counted on as a major source of income to the school. Conway also said the City and Regional Planning Department no longer ranks with the peers it once dominated. "The Trustees want to invest?in excellence, not mediocrity," she said to students, who claim the department's ninth-place nationwide ranking is more than mediocre. Conway said she suggested at the meeting that students work with faculty to develop "creative strategies." Joe King, president of the Student Planning Association, said he feels students are doing their best to preserve the department. "I think there is definite resistance," the graduate student said. "The process is still going on. It would be a great loss if it were to close down." Tomazinis said he feels the students and their input are necessary components of the decision process. "I will not agree on anything unless the faculty and students are 100 percent in favor of the solution," he said. Another standing faculty meeting is scheduled for next week, at which time the four GSFA department chairs will present alternate proposals.