With the news of several faculty positions being cut and entire departments being dismantled and merged, it’s easy to see why many students are upset with the changes.

The university is facing a budget shortfall, and cuts have to be made to keep from accumulating debt. The most effective way to cut costs is to reduce faculty and staff. Salaries make up the largest single expense of the university’s 2010 budget. Forty-five percent of the $126 million budget is used to pay faculty, staff and administration.

Downsizing and consolidating are necessary and cut costs quickly, but not painlessly. People who enhanced our education – and who we love – are leaving.

Though the majority of the budget cuts have to be made up of salaries, we should also cut luxuries. Our day to day lives should reflect the fact that professors and colleagues are packing their offices into a box and leaving.

Some may view the administration’s move as cutting out a bit of the heart to save the body of the university.

All of us, including the faculty getting laid off, have had to cut back on some luxuries throughout this recession. The university should do the same.

The cost of these pale in comparison to the amount a faculty member makes in a year, but it shows a physical example of the cutbacks the university is making and would restore confidence that the administration is making the right decisions.

This proves that the university isn’t throwing away faculty and staff while continuing on in a posh, pre-budget crisis lifestyle.

As we’ve seen in many circles throughout this worldwide economic crisis, no budget cutback, however small, is an easy one to make. On a federal, state and local government level, and even within our own businesses and households, we’ve all had to make some difficult cutbacks and changes on how we spend our ever-tightening sources of income. We believe that while some faculty and staff layoffs are necessary and inevitable, these must not be the only places in the university’s budget where cuts are made.

The faculty and staff looking for a new job are tightening their belts, we should do the same.