Professor Fears Programs Will be “Gutted” After UM’s Restructuring

On KGVO’s Montana Morning News, University of Montana History Professor Mehrdad Kia related his opinions about changes he says may be coming with the appointment of a new Dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences. Kia was troubled about what might happen to the college if these changes occur.

“The memo suggests that the University of Montana intends to restructure Humanity and Sciences into a series of divisions and schools over the course of the coming academic year,” Kia said. “When you speak about restructuring, it really means gutting programs and departments and dissolving them.”

Kia said, in his opinion, he believes the very identity of those programs may be destroyed in the name of saving money.

“What it all means is that the traditional identity of our academic programs and departments, the way we have known it for many decades and I have been here for 30 years now, will all disappear,” Kia said.

Kia said, in his opinion, that the administration is asking the professors to recruit new students, when, he says, that is the function of the administration.

“The administration, which has to recruit more students and has failed to do so, is now going to cut programs and departments, or somehow bring them into new entities and so on and so forth,” Kia said. “This is the irony of the situation; we need more students in order to generate more revenue. As long as our student numbers are declining, of course we have to address it by these kinds of draconian measures.”

It is important to note that these are the opinions of Dr. Kia, and do not necessarily reflect those of the administration or any other faculty members.