Although Sacramento State received $1.5 million from the chancellor’s office to add more classes and sections to the spring semester, certain departments still have to make cuts.

Fred Baldini, interim associate dean of the College of Health and Human Services, said the department has cut approximately 85 kinesiology classes for the spring semester.

“We’re not getting the level of funding to offer the schedule that we normally offer,” Baldini said. “We have to set priorities.”

Baldini said the department’s priority is the major courses, general education courses and service courses or courses taken by students from other departments. Activity classes, such as beginning soccer, beginning swimming, jogging and bicycling, are the lowest priorities.

“If I only have so many dollars, I have to try to service the students that are in my major first,” Baldini said.

Nicholas Burnett, chair of the communication studies department, said 21 classes were cut from the fall semester even with the $1.5 million given to the campus.

Burnett said the department prioritizes core classes over elective classes.

“We’ve tried to preserve a number of electives in journalism and in communication studies because people need electives too,” Burnett said.

Naturally, fewer classes mean fewer professors.

Baldini and Burnett said they have part-time professors who will not be coming back in the spring semester. Some will be coming back, but their classes have been reduced, which takes away their benefits.

“We have very good part-time instructors, and not bringing them back has nothing to do with their performance in class,” Baldini said. “We just don’t have enough dollars to bring them back.”

Burnett said five part-time professors will not be coming back in the spring.

“One of the sad things that I did this morning is I had to write to five faculty members who taught for us in the fall and tell them we did not have enough classes to bring them back in the spring,” Burnett said. “It’s a terrible thing to tell somebody that a third of their income is going away.”

Matt McDougall, part-time professor and assistant coach for the soccer team, taught three activity classes this semester. In the spring, he will not have any classes and will not receive benefits.

“It’s frustrating because it’s part of my salary, but there are people who have been here a lot longer than me who are not receiving those classes as wel,” McDougall said.

Terry Patten Armbrust, part-time lecturer in the psychology department, will also not have any classes in the spring semester. She said she’s thought about switching from teaching to research.

“If you’re a part-time instructor and you teach in more than one campus, every semester you don’t know if you’re going to have a job or not,” Patten Armbrust said.

Lois Boulgarides, professor in the kinesiology and health science department and vice president for the Sac State chapter of the California Faculty Association, said that reducing the number of part-time faculty puts unreasonable workload to the full-time faculty.

“One, there are going to be fewer classes, fewer sections, so students won’t be able to get the classes they need,” Boulgarides said. “And two, the classes that they do get are probably going to be bigger. We’re being asked to do more for the same amount of money.”

According to data given by the chancellor’s office to CFA, 185 part-time professors in fall 2008 were not reappointed to come back in fall 2009. This number includes retirements and voluntary resignations.

Boulgarides said that part of the agreement when the CFA voted for the furlough is that the CSU administration would supply them with information as to how many jobs were lost or gained.

Boulgarides said the administration has to rethink its priorities.

“We have a limited amount of money and the cuts are being made across campus,” Boulgarides said. “

Provost Joseph Sheley said the budget for Academic Affairs is 6.3 percent smaller than it was last year. Other units on campus, like graduate studies, also took a 6.3 percent cut.

“It’s tough to sustain a cut in any place without it having negative implications,” Sheley said.

Kristine Guerra can be reached at [email protected]