Opinions

It is hard to believe that we are nearly at the end of the semester, and this message is appearing in the final issue of The Trail for this calendar year! I appreciate having this opportunity to share a few thoughts with the readers of The Trail, and I would like to offer a message that has been adapted from my December report to the faculty. As classes come to a close and the winter break approaches, let’s take a deep breath and acknowledge the emotional journey we have been...

The following note was delivered anonymously to The Trail’s campus mailbox and received on Nov. 11, 2022. You and the student paper are about to be besieged with the results of an effort coordinated by a large and militant group of faculty who cannot abide by the recent decision of the Board of Trustees to accept only a portion of the recommendations put forward by those same faculty. This group is organizing its messaging to the student newspaper. As you begin to receive enquiries and guidance from this portion of...

University of Puget Sound is not immune to the financial and enrollment realities facing higher education nationally, and as campus leaders we have a responsibility to maintain the academic and financial health of the university. For this reason, I charged the AAAPR Committee with providing their recommendations for how best to balance the academic priorities and financial reality of the institution given the current $10 million structural budget deficit. I thoughtfully considered their recommendations in light of our strategic plan goals, shared their report with the campus community for additional...

At the October 2022 meeting of the Board of Trustees, the Board voted on the President’s recommendations to move the university towards financial equilibrium by the end of Fiscal Year 2026. General bullet points were shared with the university community. The plan was not. Faculty requested to see the full report and supporting documents that were provided by the President and ultimately approved by the Board. To date, the President has not shared those documents with the faculty. This is a departure from the transparency and collaborative process the president...

From Monica DeHart, Nancy Bristow, Robin Jacobson, and Siddharth Ramakrishnan; all are previous members of the AAAPRC. In the hopes of clarifying the work and recommendations of the AAAPRC, we would note that our committee was charged with closing the university’s $10 million deficit by Fiscal Year 2025. Therefore, our recommendations to reduce 35 FTE faculty and consolidate programs were in response to that call, rather than an independent finding about what would be good for the health of our liberal arts institution. That proposal sought both to help bridge...

 By Julian Finholm   Anxiety is ubiquitous on campus. Ever-concerned students are everywhere, from Diversions Café customers to the campus library goers. Nowhere on campus is completely safe from stress, and our many mental health resources are a testament to how prevalent anxiety is on campus. However, anxiety isn’t the only hurdle students deal with. For me, one of those hurdles is autism. According to the American Psychiatric Association, autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, is characterized by “persistent deficits on social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts,” including repetitive...