As Miami University is forced to trim back on budgets, students will find a number of kinesiology and health classes are no longer being offered when they schedule for fall 2009. Due to a lack of staff, the department has cut nine of its 40 classes, including individual exercise, jogging, weight training, tennis and dance. The editorial board of The Miami Student feels the university is demonstrating fiscal responsibility in this case.
Budget cuts are necessary. Once that fact is acknowledged, the question becomes where to make them. The classes that were targeted do the least to benefit undergraduate education. While we recognize the importance of physical health and believe these specific classes can add enjoyment to the overall college experience, neither reason is sufficient to justify saving these classes.
They just aren't necessary.
In a time of economic strain, one can't afford to keep luxuries. Students can go to the Recreational Sports Center without being enrolled in a course or take one of the KNH classes still available. The university has wisely kept classes such as horseback riding and ice-skating, which make the university money through additional fees and use instructors working in other capacities at Miami.
Although we recognize two-credit hour classes can balance heavy course-loads, the university does offer other two-credit hour sprint courses. Also, simply needing additional credit hours is not a legitimate reason to protest the loss of these specific classes.
When the university is on sounder economic footing, these classes are something we would like to see reinstituted because they are fun and enhance student life at Miami. For now, the university must be conscious of its outflows, and cutting these classes will save more in money than will be lost in the value of Miami's undergraduate education.
