Watch out for that Oar!

Since before I moved to the Austin area in the mid 90s, I've been familiar with UT's informal classes. They publish a colorful brochure containing thousands of classes available to the public four semesters a year. I've taken such classes as Aromatherapy, Writing your First Novel, Belly dancing, How to Publish Your Own Book, Medicinal Herbs, Basics of Starting a New Business, Building a Web Site with HTML, and Stain Glass Mosaics - just to name a few.

For the last three years I've also taught classes at UT. The pay wasn't out standing and the parking was horrible. But the interaction with the public was good for me and the association with UT looked good on bio.

Last semester they raised the minimum attendance per class. This was the first step I've seen to indicate that the Informal Classes might be having some difficulty. Today I received an email stating that the summer semester will be the last semester that UT will offer Informal Classes. The reason stated for dropping the Informal Class program was that it was failing to carry its self, the University of Texas was having to subsidize the program.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but it seems to me that a University as big as UT should be able to cut back the classes offered and subsidize them as needed until the economy bounces back. Many classes they offer are geared towards helping people learn a new occupation. And it's not like every single class they offered failed to make money, I know many classes filled before the pamphlet was even printed.

If they scaled way back on classes, dropped the expensive print runs and advertisements, and offered financial assistance to those who qualify for grants to take occupational classes, I think their statement about the financial times and the people they SERVE would be more powerful.

Instead of "We care", "We want to help", "We'll be there for you even when the times are tough", what I'm hearing is the sound of oars beating the little people on the head as the rich escape with the life raft.