Editorial:

Cutting psychology minor sets bad precedent

The psychology department closed its upper-level courses to non-majors.

Published March 2, 2009

With the budget crisis and hiring freeze, we knew things were going to be rough on campus. We knew some things were going to have to be cut and other areas were going to suffer.

The one thing we didn't think would suffer was a comprehensive and thorough academic environment that strives to meet the needs of all students.

The psychology department has closed off its upper-level classes to all non-majors, making it impossible for students to obtain a minor in the area or allow interested students to use these classes to fulfill upper-level general education classes and electives.

This is extremely limiting for students who not only want to pursue a minor to widen their knowledge but also students who are just interested in the subjects and want to gain specific knowledge from particular classes.

Psychology is a field that has a broad application to a number of subjects, which makes it an attractive supplement with a minor or just an addition to normal course work. Many classes require upper-level sciences and psychology has continually been an attractive option because of its fluidity in application to other fields of study.

Removing this option limits people in their understanding of a wide range of topics and limits the ways in which MU students can set themselves apart from other areas of the university. Limiting students in this way is inexcusable and it's disturbing that the university is willing to cut back in ways that harm academics.

We understand the psychology department can't take on any more students without the integrity of the department suffering but limiting the options of students absolutely should not be the answer. Exemptions can be made to the hiring freeze. If any opportunity should be an exemption, it's one where the only other option is the suffering of academic options.

MU is supposed to offer a wide breadth of study and removing class options narrows this breadth. There is no excuse for allowing this school to suffer academic excellence, budget crisis or not.