By Benjamin Strawbridge
Staff Writer
April 12, 2018
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After a one-week hiatus, the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Student Senate reconvened on Sunday to welcome Senior Vice Provost for Student Life and Dean of Students John T. Kirkpatrick, as well as elect the body’s next Senate Speaker.
Armed with the hopes of clearing fog from the controversial issue of the recent College of Liberal Arts (COLA) lecturer cuts, Kirkpatrick attended the meeting to explain his perspective on the cuts, as well as to answer questions from concerned senators.
Kirkpatrick noted that COLA’s financial difficulties have intensified in recent years due to the trend of falling enrollment, as it has seen a decrease from a high of 5,000 majors to its current level of 3,800 majors.
Kirkpatrick additionally linked the COLA cuts as a result of an overabundance of “labor” over “demand,” in which there were an overabundance of lecturers and respective courses facing a lack of student registration prior to the announced dismissals. This absence of student engagement, compounded by the lack of state funding toward the university, caused the UNH lecturers’ union to be “in the hole” by $4 million. Kirkpatrick stated that the Granite State ranks near the bottom in state funding for public educational institutions.
The only logical remedy, he concluded, that did not involve deficit spending or raising student tuition was to cut the current list of non-tenured lecturers from their contracts.
“I know many of you have thought that it could have been handled better than it was, I’m not going to argue with that, we’re dealing with human beings,” Kirkpatrick said as he addressed student criticism regarding an alleged lack of administrative transparency concerning the layoffs, stressing his personal and professional connections to a number of the affected lecturers over his time at UNH and that he has felt “very badly” about the impending cuts.
“But these things are never easy, and that’s why I wanted to come here on behalf of not just the provost [Nancy Targett] but all of the other deans here in Durham to try and answer any questions you have about that process,” he added.
During Kirkpatrick’s Q&A with the Senate, Community Development Chair Elena Ryan stressed that the lack of transparency from both UNH administration and the lecturers’ union – a relationship Ryan said “needs to be worked on” – was the main cause of frustration among students.
Another inquiry concerned the dismissal of the Arabic program’s sole lecturer, Ruwa Pokorny, with several members of the Senate, including Campus Structure Council Chair and Student Body President-elect Ethan McClanahan, who studies Arabic, commenting that the move “doesn’t make sense” while wondering why a “dedicated” lecturer would be cut when “it’s unlikely that you’ll find someone as qualified as her.”
“All of us would agree that we want to make UNH as competitive as possible in everything that it does, because we’re talented-based, that’s why we try recruit the best students that we can, the best faculty that we can…but I think the concentration of these cuts in the College of Liberal Arts was specific to their red ink,” Kirkpatrick said.
In addition to Kirkpatrick’s visit, the body proceeded to elect Director of Public Relations Nicholas LaCourse as the next Senate Speaker for Session XL, replacing current Speaker Douglas Marino effective May 1. The outcome followed a more than two-hour-long executive session in which each of the nominees were interviewed by the remaining assembly; following procedure, the session was closed off to the general public and press.
The nominees for the position of Speaker, aside from Speaker-elect LaCourse, included Senate Historian Tyler Anderson; First Year Representative & Senator Dennis Ruprecht, Jr.; Non-Resident 6 Senator Katie Clark and Non-Resident Senator Abbie Sheridan.
In a statement to The New Hampshire, LaCourse said that he is “very excited to be working as Speaker next year for the body,” and that he was “very humbled” by the Senate’s final vote.
“I really am going to work hard to make sure we live up to the mandate that the body’s given me,” LaCourse added.
The night’s sole resolution, Motion R.39.34, introduced by Judicial Affairs Chair Joshua Velez, aimed to approve changes to the Student Rights, Rules and Responsibilities, specifically Article 23, which would make it easier for students to obtain permits from the Durham Police Department for public assemblies and events, as well as increase the maximum number of participants that can assemble for such a public event without a permit from five to 25 persons. The motion passed with one abstention.
Originally published in The New Hampshire in Vol. 107, No. 24, on April 12, 2018.