UNC budget cuts hit the classroom

From the weekend: a look at how budget cuts at UNC system campuses are hitting the classroom.

It all depends on who you talk to. Some professors, advisors and the like are really struggling to cut costs. And some students, like Jarmir Smith, who you'll meet in this story, are feeling it, too. 

But others, like the freshmen in Don Raleigh's freshman seminar at UNC Chapel Hill, say they don't see the problem. Of course, they just got to college and have little basis for comparison.

It should be noted: while UNC-CH raised its cap on freshman seminar enrollment to 24 students, not all seminars have that many students this fall. And, the university asked professors whether they'd mind the higher enrollment before expanding it from 20; those who didn't like the idea of larger seminars didn't have to host them. 

Since this story focused on public universities, we didn't cover the effects of the economy on private colleges. But I talked to some folks at Duke about this too last week.

There, officials say they're able to avoid academic cuts by paring costs in other areas. New construction has been halted, for example, and plans across campus to replace computers and other office equipment are being delayed, said Michael Schoenfeld, a Duke spokesman.

And housekeepers will no longer clean residence halls on Saturdays.

"We are doing things at the margins that will be noticeable to students," Schoenfeld said.