By Paul A. Anthony, Editor in Chief

The university should have considered giving students a say in its most recent round of budget cuts, Vice President of Finance Phil Schubert told the Students’ Association Wednesday.

The statement came in the middle of a 45-minute session in which Schubert and Provost Dwayne VanRheenen addressed questions and concerns from Student Congress and members of the International Students Association.

“I had a big part in coming up with the process we were about to endorse,” Schubert said of the strategic team system that thought up the early retirement program and other moves designed to cut $5 million. “I pushed that process. Had we stopped long enough-we were moving extremely quickly-there might have been ways to invite students that were appropriate.”

VanRheenen said the speed of the process and the confidential nature of some data made student involvement difficult, a statement he later amended.

“With response to student involvement in the process, I think we just blew it there,” he told the Optimist Thursday. “I think [confidentiality] is an issue … but students can be just as confidential as faculty and staff.”

The officials had responded to Rep. Elizabeth ‡lvarez, Administration Building, who pointed to vows made in 2002 to include students in future budget moves after the university announced the cuts of the Industrial Technology and Family and Consumer Sciences departments.

“It seems like we missed out on an opportunity this time,” she said.

About a dozen international students attended the meeting to air concerns with cuts to the English as a Second Language program and the Center for International and Intercultural Education.

The potential cuts led CIIE director Ted Presley and his wife, Ellen, the CIIE adviser, to accept the university’s early retirement plan.

“If the Presleys are retiring, with the experience they have over the years and years, there will be no possibility for strengthening or regrowing the department,” said ISA president Carlos Macias. “If they retire, and there is no one with the experience or capability of taking that department, it will be really hard to take back those resources.”

VanRheenen said he and Ted Presley have discussed the possibility of the Presleys advising their replacements next year.

Cuts to international student scholarships and recruiting do not represent a reduction in the university’s commitment to diversity, Schubert said.

“We feel the need to step back, regroup and look at various organizational schemes and strategies that may be more effective” in the wake of the factors that have held down international student enrollment, Schubert said, including the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a poor economy and increased travel restrictions. “It shouldn’t be interpreted as a long-term redirection of focus on international students on this campus.”

The admission that students could have been more involved in the decision process prompted a rejoinder from Rep. Erin Baldwin, Administration Building:

“We are adults, and we want to be involved,” she said. “If a similar situation arises in the future, and these kinds of decisions need to be made, please include the students.”