By Paul A. Anthony, Editor in Chief

For Carolyn Thompson, the prospect of early retirement is bittersweet.

Despite the university’s offer of a year’s salary and free health insurance for any who are eligible and wish to accept it, the woman who has spent more than 10 years helping ACU’s international students achieve their dreams faces a nightmarish decision.

Her job probably will be cut, administrators have told her, so she should consider the retirement option.

“I don’t think I have any choice,” said Thompson, director of the Institute for Intensive English, which runs the university’s English as a Second Language program that will probably be restructured. “They’re cutting back the program, and I’m not tenured.”

The ESL cutback, one of several dozen moves announced Tuesday to faculty and staff, is part of a plan to close the university’s $5 million shortfall. Another of those moves, announced in December, is the early retirement program.

Thompson has been teaching ESL and German classes for 10 years. German is her field of study, which will not help her in Abilene-both high schools already have German-language teachers, and “turnover is low.”

Her husband, Dr. James Thompson, is associate dean of the Graduate School of Theology.

“We’re staying,” she said, “so I’m kind of up a creek.”

The situation is similar for Onita Hill, director of the Learning Enhancement Center. The center likely will be dissolved in favor of a decentralized approach to tutoring that the university is hoping will save several hundred thousand dollars.

Hill said she did not know for sure whether her job would be cut, but the deadline for accepting early retirement was Thursday.

“They didn’t offer me much hope of finding another job on campus,” Hill said, pledging to wait “until the last minute and see if I get any information on which to base my decision.”

The cuts to LEC, ESL and the Department of Academic Advance were among the deepest recommended by the 13 strategic teams assigned to find ways to save $5 million.

Although administrators notified those whose jobs could be affected far in advance of the public announcement, Wednesday’s open forum for the faculty and staff brought pointed questions and comments from several in the affected departments.

“Had I not had the benefit of the ACAD classes, I might have turned tail and run,” said Lynn Hartshorn, administrative coordinator for the Bachelor of Applied Studies, which also could lose jobs in recommended restructuring. “I can’t imagine my education without it.”

Officials said they believed tutoring of students who need help in English and math could best be done in conjunction with entry-level classes. Currently, students with ACT or SAT scores below minimum requirements must take Academic Advance courses before enrolling in English 112 or Math 120.

Under a new plan, the departments of English and Math and Computer Science would house such tutoring, said Dr. Nancy Shankle, chair of the English Department.

“If there is no ACAD program, we’ll still provide support,” Shankle said, “but it will be a different kind of support.”

A committee composed of Drs. Dwayne VanRheenen, provost, Colleen Durrington, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Carol Williams, dean of the graduate school and chair of the Academic Programs strategic team, as well as members of the English and Math departments, is finalizing specifics of the plan.

Likewise, LEC has been a source of peer tutoring for students wishing to get help with their grades, Hill said. She cited statistics showing that about 1,000 students used LEC last year.

“Just today, I had an international student come in and ask, ‘What are people like me going to do?'” Hill said last week.

The support still will exist, Williams said, despite the cuts in University Studies, which could save as much as $350,000.

“What we came up with was a plan to give the support to the underprepared students in a different and cost-effective way,” she said, “but a way that we felt would be at least as good.”

But there’s the jobs issue.

“I had no intention of retiring,” Hill said. “That wasn’t my plan.”

Money said the university would attempt to place those who lose their jobs and either weren’t eligible for or did not accept early retirement elsewhere in the university if they are qualified, while Human Resources Director Suzanne Allmon said her office would provide help to those looking for off-campus jobs.

University officials stressed they were being as fair and open as they could, warning those whose jobs could be cut before making any public announcements, but they admitted some would have to choose between a possibly unnecessary early retirement and a potentially missed opportunity.

“All we can do in good faith is say, ‘This is our best knowledge today,'” said Executive Vice President Jack Rich. “We tried to come up with a plan that addressed that, and we did the best we could. … Is it perfect? No, it’s not.”

Money told the Optimist last week that the human cost of the cuts “makes me lose sleep.” His statements to the ACAD and LEC staff Wednesday echoed those sentiments:

“I know what you’re saying,” he said. “It’s a painful thing.”