Ellington

EDITOR'S NOTE: There were a total of five adviser layoffs around campus in the following departments: communication, anthropology, business, history and career services.

The budget-cut discussions may have fizzled out since the Board of Regents voted on the final 2009-2010 budget in June, but budget cut woes are far from over. Some advisers have felt the impact of the cuts this summer after losing their jobs due to the reductions.

Joni Marts, one of the two advisers for the anthropology department, sent her farewell e-mail this past Monday, her last day in the position.

“When an adviser goes, the student is losing a piece of the connection to that department and to the school,” she said. “What’s happening is not just with me, it’s happening with other departments, too.”

Indeed, communication majors received their farewell e-mail from adviser Sharon Redeker mid-June.

“June 10 is my last day as an academic counselor in this department,” Redeker wrote in the e-mail. “Due to budget reductions, my position has had to be eliminated.”

The reduction of advisers is one of a few ways that the quality of services for students have dropped due to the budget cuts.

“Apart from losing a half-time staff position [Marts], we also lost a considerable amount of funding for teaching assistants (TA),” said Bettina Shell-Duncan, chair to the anthropology department.

Late last year, TA positions had to be eliminated to accommodate for the university’s reduced budget. Although the provost released $10 million in temporary funds to reduce the amount of TA positions that needed to be cut, some still had to leave.

One of UW President Mark Emmert’s arguments in favor of the 14-percent increase of undergraduate tuition was that it would keep more classes available, thereby allowing students to graduate on time.

Marts believes that’s also true of good advising.

“Last graduation in June, a student came up to me and said, ‘I want you to meet my parents.’ He took me up to his parents and said, ‘This is the woman who saved me a year,’ and the father said, ‘I want to shake your hand.’”

Shell-Duncan said that due to the reduction of staff, the department will have to scale back on outreach events that would bring more students into the anthropology progr am.

Now that Marts has left, Diane Guerra, director of student services and full-time adviser in the anthropology department, will take charge of advising students that was previously split between the two of them.

“I’m going to be very busy,” she said. “Last year was a building year for us. We went up to almost 500 students, and then they cut a position.”

Guerra said she doesn’t blame anybody and hopes the administration will come up with a strategy to distribute the workload.

“We are going to provide Diane with additional administrative support,” Shell-Duncan said, “so more of her time can be spent on advising students and less on record keeping.”

Reach News Editor Eric Staples at

news@dailyuw.com.