Seinfeld’s Kramer would argue that Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock was the best installment of the original Trek movies four decades ago.
Most agree its predecessor, The Wrath of Khan, was the better of those pictures.
One of the classic Star Trek characters, Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy, a fictional graduate of Ole Miss by the way, had a really good quote in Search for Spock. After William Shatner’s character had made a bold move that bought the U.S.S. Enterprise’s crew some time while fighting Christopher Lloyd’s Klingon character, he asked, “Bones, what have I done?” McCoy responded, “What you always do. Turn death into a fighting chance to live.”
Delta State University President Dr. Daniel Ennis did that very thing this week.
His 15-page memo detailing millions of dollars in budget cuts, along with faculty layoffs and program deletions, has been met with mixed reviews, but it was necessary.
Among those programs recommended for termination are the Department of Art, Language & Literature Division, four degree programs in the Division of Math & Sciences, three degree programs in the Department of Music, two degree programs in the Department of Social Sciences & History Division, accountancy, finance and others.
Ennis said measures could amount to as much as $5 million in initial cost savings for an institution that has been running deficits for some time.
When Ennis was selected as DSU’s president a year ago, he was transparent about the fact that nothing was off the table when it came to cuts. He was up front about the dire financial situation at the college.
Ennis was very successful during the past academic school year in making friends and becoming a student’s president.
Most people like him, but his primary job is not to be liked. He was tasked with coming to Cleveland and giving the Fighting Okra a fighting chance to live past 2030.
The measures he announced this week will likely not be the last.
One of the cool things about Delta State, speaking as an alum, is the smaller class sizes. Students there enjoy a closeness with professors they would not get at larger universities.
The one drawback to that is if a class of 15 in the year 2005 tuns into a class of 10 in 2024, that’s a 30% drop. That’s much more significant from a monetary standpoint at DSU than five people or even 30% dropping from a normal class of 200 at a larger institution of higher learning.
The customers have to bring in enough cash to pay for the labor and the building costs, right?
If student enrollment continues to decrease in certain degree fields at the college, expect more cuts.
There comes a point in every business, though, when bosses cut so much that it becomes counter to generating revenue and both revenue and profit nosedive.
Moving forward, DSU will have to be more surgical about its cost-cutting approach.
Degree programs that still have great cash potential should not be shuttered just because they are experiencing lower enrollment. The school should just take different recruitment approaches in those areas.
We wish Ennis, DSU and the Institutions of Higher Learning board of directors well in this endeavor. We need a strong and healthy Delta State in the Delta.
