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Dean backs new schedule

Warga: Cutting back on night classes will strengthen Bauer College

by Geronimo Rodriguez
Senior Staff Writer

Some students believe the Bauer College of Business is taking a step back by cutting night classes for undergraduate students in the fall, but business Dean Arthur Warga said the move is a step toward strengthening the college's accreditation, adding that splitting up graduates and undergraduates is a more ideal way to run the program.

Matt DeFiore/The Daily Cougar

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"We're aware of four students out of 5,300 who aren't happy -- to have that is nothing short of miraculous," he said.

Student Government Association President Jon Quintanilla said the business college, the oldest and only fully accredited business school in Houston, sets the standard among UH colleges. However, Quintanilla said he discourages other colleges from following Bauer's lead by cutting night classes.

"Regardless of how many students have come forward, it's a problem if it's making students reconsider being at UH," Quintanilla said. 

Warga said the shift is not as drastic as a handful of students are making it out to be, adding that the evening was always devoted to graduate students.

"Everything we do here is to strengthen what's already been here," Warga, who has been the business dean for three years, said. "The notion that you could get a (bachelor's degree) by just going to school at night is ridiculous."

Frank Kelley, director of the college's undergraduate program, said the business school's accrediting body discourages cross-listing, or having graduates and undergraduates enrolled in the same class, and that it has been practiced only to meet the demands of staffing and financing.

"However, the quality of instruction, having to teach graduate and undergraduate students, is being compromised," Kelley said.

Warga and Kelley said they have communicated with students concerned about the change by e-mail, and Kristina Velasco, a business senior, said she has a meeting with Kelley today. Velasco said she will transfer to UH-Downtown because the classes she needs are no longer available at night.

Kelley, who said he was not aware of the schedule change until the beginning of this semester, said the college's advisers always try to accommodate working students.

"But if a student works 40 hours per week, we'll tell them to talk to their employer about making their schedule more flexible," Kelley said.

Adam Halfacre, a business junior, submitted his resignation as an office assistant at Liberty Mutual bank when he saw the Fall 2004 schedule.

"It's still going to work out, but not the way I had planned," Halfacre said.
 

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