Officials have axed a College Park Scholars program due to lack of participation, prompting an outcry from students who say their experiences in the living-learning community are invaluable.
Advocates for Children — a student program that targets issues affecting families and children through service-based projects and political involvement — will be discontinued in Spring 2011, eliminating three staff positions.
University administrators have emphasized the ability of academic living-learning programs to recruit talented students, but as participation in Advocates for Children declined, officials began to question the program’s permanence.
“It’s been a very strong program, but we’ve had difficulty bringing in a full class of students each year,” said Greig Stewart, executive director of College Park Scholars. “Its inability to attract a number of students interested factored into the discussion of canceling it.”
Stewart said each program is expected to have at least 75 sophomores and 75 freshmen. Because of the recent lack of student interest, Advocates for Children has been unable to meet those standards.
But students have a different take on the cut: Sophomore elementary education major Lauren Levine said when students in the program were notified of the cancellation this week by Advocates for Children Director Karen Kurotsuchi Inkelas, they were told the decision was based on a need to improve the academic rigor and standards of the College Park Scholars program.
“Logically, the level and ability of the students in Advocates for Children is on par with the levels and abilities of students in any Scholars program,” Levine said. “To hear that the elimination of Advocates stems from the idea that we are ‘below par’ academically is insulting and wrong.”
Provost Nariman Farvardin called for the creation of the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Living-Learning and Special Programs, which would oversee the entire College Park Scholars community. The committee began to discuss discontinuing the program this fall, and Donna Wiseman, dean of the education college, made the final decision in early November, Stewart said.
“This decision was made very heavy-heartedly and with great ambivalence because the College is extremely proud of Advocates for Children,” Inkelas wrote in an e-mail. “However, the College of Education received great discouragement and pressure by the [Provost’s Advisory Committee on Living-Learning and Special Programs] this fall to discontinue the program.”
As a result of the discontinuation, three of the four staff members in Advocates for Children will lose their positions, Inkelas said. Because she is a tenured faculty member, Inkelas will remain employed at the university.
The decision to cancel the program has prompted a backlash from students who are fighting to reverse the outcome. Many students are planning on writing letters to officials, expressing their support of the program and sharing their personal experiences while in Advocates for Children.
“This program is unique and one of a kind within the scholars community,” sophomore economics major Erica Ramos wrote in an e-mail. “There is no other program that offers a chance to learn on campus and apply our knowledge/service to the College Park community.”
Advocates for Children participates in several community service activities, including projects at underserved schools, children’s hospitals, juvenile justice facilities and school systems overseas, Inkelas said.
“Last year, the Advocates for Children fund raised money to help build a water tower in Africa so that communities would have safe drinking water, and promote education for children in areas where primary education is not a priority,” Ramos wrote. “The experience one gains from Advocates is one that cannot be replaced.”
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