In case you haven’t heard, Bradley University had a shortcoming of $13 million dollars this past fiscal year. That’s about 10% of the current budget, so Bradley is facing a lot of decisions for the coming years in order to restructure around this loss. As scary as this thought is, the scarier part is how Bradley has said close to nothing to the students about what is happening and their plans moving forward.
There was an email sent to students on July 31. It briefly talked about the budget cut, but numbers and a course of action were not provided. Instead, the email highlighted that Bradley was going to be providing faculty and students were going to be receiving iPads in the coming year or two. This project, mind you, is going to cost Bradley University $30 million. The email did not mention the shortcoming, but rather stated Bradley would be implementing a “continual review of our academic programs and majors.” That was all the information students have gotten directly from Bradley University.
Despite not getting news from Bradley specifically, students, myself included, are hearing various things and experiencing the repercussions of these cuts personally. One of the first groups to get impacted was the Legal Studies minors when the program got cut with no notice. Students heard from faculty through emails apologizing for no longer being able to support them. This immediately led to panic about other majors and minors being cut with seemingly no notice. Fortunately, I have no need to worry about the programs I am a part of being cut. I believe this to be true due to said programs being some of the bigger and/or more common programs provided at Bradley. However, it’s still unnerving that Bradley could unexpectedly decide to cut them at any given moment.
This is personally impacting me with my minor as well. I love my minor with every fiber of my being, but for several reasons I will not be stating what it is. Despite the importance minors hold within a department, the small size of the program and constant budget changes makes us fearful of dismissal from Bradley. I am working with the department to complete an internship related to my minor. This means I am in the loop regarding the internship’s lack of a budget — as much as a student intern can be. It’s very intense when I am in a meeting with those who are heading up the internship and being told despite me taking charge, I cannot be the name of the project for my own security as a Bradley student in the face of this budget cut.
I don’t expect Bradley to immediately have a solution for what’s happening, but I do expect to hear from them before I sit down for another stressful meeting. The budget cut is a scary thing that is just looming over the students here because of how limited our knowledge is. No one knows if their major is safe or if they have a career here still following these budget cuts.