Select a category

• Financial Aid / Scholarships
• Student Employment Opportunities
• Technology
• Diverse University Community
• Student-Focused Environment
• Outstanding Faculty
• Libraries
• Advisement
• Affordability
• Quality Academic Programs
• Administrative Support
• Cost Savings
• Housing
• Campus

Financial Aid / Scholarships

• Please don't cut financial aid anymore! In fact, try to help students pay for school a little more. With many students and their families unemployed and the high pressure of recieving good grades and taking as many difficult classes as possible with students who do have a job but cannot work that often, the rate of dropping out goes up because we cannot pay to go to WestConn. That's pretty upsetting. So please, please, please give us more financial aid or don't give us any less. Thank you.
• I agree that financial aid should not be cut at all, if anything they should offer more financial aid to help students get through college without worrying about the financial part of it. Maybe cut down tuition, especially for out of state students. Raisig tuition wil make things more stressful for every student, and draw people away from westconn. I did however here the tuition is being raised next year. Lowering tuition is the number one thing that can be done to help students, and if you ask me the only thing...so why is tuition being raised, but your asking for ideas to help students financially?
• Please don't cut financial aid! Students have a hard enough time paying for school as it is.
• Maintain financial aid as much as possible.
• Maintain scholarship opportunities for academically prepared students.
• Continue to make WestConn's tuition affordable by offering more scholarships and financial aid to those students who qualify.
• Keep the same level of financial aid for students in good academic standing
• Financial aid should be awarded on a GPA basis, or in some way related to a student's performance. Why should individuals get money to attend a school at which they will only party, sleep, and IF they show up to class just take up time and space with their non-sense and negative attitudes. If people aren't maintaining some sort of academic good standing, the money they are receiving should be allocated to others whose families truly need it and to students who have demonstrated they are taking their education seriously.
• Financial aid is really important in all it's forms, many are struggling in this economy and can barely stay in school as it is. PLEASE do not lower it, if there is any way to raise it that would be extremely helpful
• Preserve existing scholarships, and continue to offer new ones. Also maintain financial aid to qualified students. Both of these things are important for incoming and current students, many of whom would not otherwise be able to attend.
• Financial aid is the most important aspect here at WCSU. There are so many students that are only able to attend college due to financial aid that they are recieving. if you cut back on financial aid, it can be gureenteed that a number of students will be unable to attend WCSU for 2012. Please do not cut back the Financial Aid budget
• Do not allow students to work in Financial Aid. Instead, encourage students to work in understaffed offices. Students are not equipped, trained, or qualified to help other students with their financial aid issues. It is very frustrating to hear students complain that when they visit the office, they are given misinformation by student workers who are often times rude and unhelpful. There are many offices desperate for student worker help! Hire more full time staff for Financial Aid, preferably personable workers who can deal with the stress and anxiety that students experience in their financial troubles.
• Please do not cut financial aid! Also, rather than just allowing a one-time advance payment of loans or grants, allow a continuous payout plan, which will especially benefit those with budgeting problems. Also create a hardship scholarship to be awared to a full-time student in any major who has earned a 3.0 or higher while either working 20 hours or more per week, or who is struggling to raise a child/children, or who is constantly working to overcome a disability, or possibly has overcome addiction. A scholarship like this recognizes that we are more than students- we are employees, parents, interns, volunteers, etc and it recognizes those who have worked very hard fighting any stigma they are faced with.
• Financial aid should be the last thing to get cut! I like the extracurricular programs we have at this school but I don't want to see financial aid get lowered while the school is spending money on WestFest and Words to the Birds, etc. If someone cannot attend school because his or her financial aid is lowered, that can ruin their entire life. No one's life is going to be ruined if we take away Road Scholar or similar programs. And I agree with one of the other posters who said that financial aid should be awarded on the basis of G.P.A. There are too many people at this school, especially freshmen who are going to drop out anyway, who don't participate in class, do the readings, or spend any time on homework. We should not be spending financial aid money on people who don't care at all about getting an education.
• Expand scholarship/financial aid available for out of state students.
• I think WestConn should implement a new type of financial aid system. Rather than students seeking loans from outside banks and paying high interest rates WestConn could create its own type of low payment option-where its actually affordable and reasonable for a student. This low type of payment system could charge interest lower than student loans to increase revenue for WestConn. These low payment plans could be in addition to the two main types of goverment loans-stafford and perkins. This would also allow more students to attend WestConn and give them realistic payment options rather than the hastle of student loans. Instead of the extra money paid on interest rates to these banks, the interest could go into the future of WestConn.

Student Employment Opportunities

• Please keep on campus jobs for students. Students need the money and it helps them develop a work ethic.
• Continue work study !!!
• On campus jobs. It is difficult to find a job around Danbury that will go along with the school schdule that many students have. The on campus jobs are usually really good with working about the class schedule of a student. Not only that, but they allow a student to build the proper skills for a job outside of the school.
• It's really hard to get a job on campus (or alternatively fill jobs on campus) when work study money runs out halfway through fall semester and does not get refilled until the next fall. If work study were each semester that would be really helpful. Student employment is always really important
• Paid Orientation leaders
• Student workers at the front desks of the residence halls
• Keep on campus jobs. Students love them and its a great experience and learning tool.
• I think more focus should be put on developing students to work in the industries in the local area. I think stronger relationships between the career center, surrounding industries such as GE, United Technologies and financial services cos. in southern fairfield should be stablished. WCSU should look at the needs of those industries and develop programs that would meet those needs. Preparing students for the jobs thhat are available is very important. There is no need for US companies to hire H1B visa students to meet their needs for computer science and other graduates. WCSU can provide them. WCSU should search for computer science adjuncts to bring in the passion they have for their job to the classroom.

Technology

• Please keep 24 hour computer labs for students, even make sure they're better equipped if you can. They're essential to learning!
• Do not fall behind in science and technology by skimping on building, equipment, maintenance or funding of faculty who do research. Science will continue to cost more money than other disciplines and it is necessary to maintain and keep up with what we have. Catching up, letting things fall into direpair, or setting up a discouraging atmosphere for faculty trying to do research - these things will be very hard to "catch up with" in the future.
• We need to make sure that our labs stay open. They are essential for almost all science courses. Especially in the chemistry department, if we get rid of the labs, we'll lose our ACS certification!
• These are tremendously helpful, especially when a tudent is crunched for time. We can put the computers on sleep timers, so that they turn off if idle for a given amount of time; turn off the lights, if no one is presents; but we need to make sure that this helpful resource remains available to resources.
• Continue support for University Computing
• The 24 hour labs. There are many times where students on campus find themselves doing homework late at night, especially during midterms and finals, but it is not limited to that. Many classes require a great deal of studying and project work. The 24 hour labs provide a quite place for students to study and do work. Not only that but the printers in the dorm building almost never have paper in them. The 24 hours allows for a student to print what ever is necessary for them.
• Keep Labs open as well as the potential to add elective classes if enough students sign up/petition for them
• As a fairly new University Assistant with a B.S. and background in accounting, my suggestion is to enforce greater controls on the administrative processes within the University; namely, fiscal affairs that handles accounts payable and other vendor-related tasks. I believe excess time and manpower is wasted in the way paperwork is approved, via hardcopy and there should be an approval/signature system within Outlook and forms could be submitted online by students (SGA-related reimbursement forms) and approved online (similar to the soon-to-be abanded, TPS system) to improve efficiency and adhering to timely payment schedules.
• Continue to provide 24 hour computer labs for students
• Expand the computer lab resources. Many of our students do not own their own computers, and the computer has become an integral part of many parts of the curriculum.
• I would also eliminate the flaw in computer for student that have graduate from WCSU and no longer taking class at WCSU ability to login to computer system and print with their user name and password. This cut back on needless printing.
• Free printing
• Continued support for University Computing. The technology and services they provide to this University rival even top technical institutes that I have been to, and they enhance the educational environment on a daily basis. Through their efforts, this department makes it possible for students to lower out-of-pocket expenses on things like laptops, software, and printing, making all of these available for such a low technology fee, and allowing students to focus less on money and more on their education.
• Maintain our cutting edge committment to the use of technology in the classroom and in support of faculty research.
• The computers in the libraries are very important. Many mornings, the Cyber-Cafe workstations are filled by 8:30. So keep those workstations, and keep opening the library at 8:00 a.m.
• Please do not make us pay for printing. You can impliment a program that controls what people can print so pages aren't wasted which will help cut down paper and ink usage
• Keep University Computing. The computer centers are so successful. The student employees are also a huge part of the supportive atmosphere there.
• I read suggestion after suggestion to keep computer labs open 24/7 because they are essential to learning, yet whenever I enter one, I notice that nearly 50% of the machines or more (depending on the time of day/week/semester) are being used to access websites like Facebook and otherwise non-essential-to-learning websites. I wonder what the actual statistic of aggregate Facebook login time vs. all other computer use would be. Subsequently I wonder what the real demand for computer labs in usage-hours/day/term would be if the social functionality of these machines is restricted. Any argument that Facebook or the like is essential to helping students communicate with each other is completely ridiculous.
  
  My suggestion would be, at the very least, to completely block access to Facebook, MySpace and other blatantly non-essential-to-learning websites from WCSU machines. If Facebook or the like is required for specific research, issue temporary passwords.
• I read many suggestions regarding computer labs staying open, supported, etc. I want to make sure that all computer classrooms continue to be supported, upgraded when necessary, and maintained.

Diverse University Community

• Protect diversity programs and support for a diverse faculty, staff and student body.
• Expand the study abroad program or encourage students to become involved in internships and cooperative education programs/projects which enhance their global awareness and diversity.
• Please continue to offer programs that focus on diversity and the arts.
• Try to maintain the community engagement that we have built up over the past few years.
• Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration !!! We also need to better utilize resources in teh community.
• What about creating some Phis. Ed. space for the community of Danbury? There is a swimming pool that could be helping children how to learn to swim in weekends and slow times at the pool. The Gyms could be offering the same to children. Also there is a lot people who could be affiliated with the university for exercising and get healthier if the possibility could be there. We can think that it would increase the exposure of the campus and its contacts with the local community and even attract more people to its success.

Student-Focused Environment

• Maintain student support services like the counseling center, substance abuse programs, advisement, the writing lab and other tutoring services.
• Maintain focus on international outreach. Global communication and job outlooks is only going to become more important for students.
• Do not lower enrollment standards and pack incoming classes. Students coming to college still need to be prepared. We should work on being top heaveier, not bottom heavier. I personally am not a big fan of us spending our time on remedial programs and courses. Simply set decent standards for incoming students and pressure K-12 system to ready them for college.
• Maintain direct student affairs services such as Health Service,Counseling,Choices, Career Counseling and Access Ability
• Continue to work towards implementing the Student Success Center in order to assist in student overall success and retention.
• Work to improve the curriculum in the first year experience program and make it a mandatory course for all freshman. Students need to become more aware of the resources available and how to properly utilize them in order to succeed.
• The math clinic, the writing lab, library, and the tutoring resource center are very important in improving the chances of our success.
• A bright potential future to students through good reccommendations from professors, advice, and solicitations from corporate firms etc. on campus for potential jobs.
• Hi. I am graduating this May, so I will not benefit from any of these changes, but I strongly feel that keeping and maintaining a subscription to the New York Times is something that is sorely missing from the campus that has been affected by the budget cuts. It may be just a newspaper and therefore expendable, but in the past I gleaned so much information from that publication, information that supplemented my classes, that I was pretty bummed when WCSU decided to cut it off last year. You want your students to be informed, well, NYTimes certainly helps.
• Maintain student service programs such as the writing lab, tutoring lab and compurter program training and support
• Our strength is the chance we give students who might not otherwise have a chance. Please expand resources devoted to giving students work experience, lab experience, research experience, professional experience and internship experience. Too often these end up as elite opportunities.
• Expand the number and quality of workspaces on campuses, for both students and faculty. Workspace abhors a vacuum! Many students cannot find a quiet place to work, and many faculty have cramped and amateur-quality offices, labs and studios.
• An essential characteristic of Western Connecticut State Univesity is the feeling of identity created by the community of dedicated staff that is present here. The students, staff and public can get answers about Western at Western. They do not have to call to a system office in Hartford to order a book, to inquire about their budget, to be reimbursed for travel, to change a beneficiary for life insurance or to simply find their paycheck. The staff at Western are dedicated to Western because they are here and involved with the on goings of the entire university. To lose this essential characteristic of Western would create a negative impact and lower the quality of the university.
• As a student athlete, playing a sport for my University (football) gives me a very proud feeling. It adds an extra element and privilege to the college experience that many students do not get a chance to experience. My hope is that athletics remain an important factor at WCSU. I believe athletics instill a heightened sense of pride in the university, as well as teach responsibility, time management, and keep students active and healthy in a society that is becoming less and less active by the year. I would hope that funding stays AT LEAST the same for varsity sports, if it is not in fact increased. Our stadium is beautiful and new, however our weight training and fitness facilities are, to put it mildly, very below average. Much of the LIMITED amount of equipment is out dated and/or broken. How can athletes be expected to perform and win if they are being sold short by their own training facilities? The weight rooms are extremely tiny and not conducive to a productive environment.
• Have annuals events that become events to draw alumni make donations other than homecoming so that we be able get donation from alumni from that will not go to homecoming, but would go to the Tri-State Weather Conference, or 4 largest debate Tournament in the entire nation this year.
• Please expand support services for students with disabilities. Reading and learning specialists, additional disability counselors and tutors are desperately needed.
• Please continue to support all of the support services that help students to be successful - -AccessAbility Services, Counseling Center, Career Development, CHOICES, Tutoring Resource Center, Writing and Math labs, etc.
• Keep a laser-like focus on students
• Maintain full and open communication
• Encourage more fund raising from clubs and organizations. Clubs and organizations should not be running to any and every form of student government for money when they want to plan activities.
• The Roger Sherman Debate Society is a neccessity in maintaining WestConn's reputation as a nationally competitive university in academics. I think that during the budget cuts it will be imperative that we keep the team active, for without representation in the national community, WestConn will far back into the clouds of universities that no one knows of. The benefits of a debate team are immense. The debate team is beneficial for a few reasons:
  • Is proven to raise a student's GPA over his or her stay at the University
  • Allows WCSU to be recognized with having a national competitive policy debate team alongside much larger colleges and universities throughout the United States
  • Enables students to become more educated on a variety of issues, and promotes philosophical thought and understanding of complex theories
  • There are many more benefits of keeping the Debate Team, of which I can not fit in this suggestion box. The debate team is the heart of WestConn and to discontinue it would be tragic.
• I love accessability service at western However I want to a communicty college that had a staff of 5 full time employees. It is sad to think that at this University, staff in this office is seen as a luxury appose to a neccessity. Ferther more the idea there are few computers that have the learn software on them is appoling. At my commuinty college there was a 24 hour computer lab with over 20 computers that had all the software on them. This made it easy for student to access help we every they need it.
• More support for offices like AccessAbility Services. The office requires more support staff, learning and reading specialists, and funding for more student workers. They do such great work for the University and the students, and yet work with the smallest staff!
• More funding for Veterans support. Hire a full time staff member to handle Veteran's benefits, preferably someone who is A) not a student and b) has ample experience dealing with the VA, Voc Rehab and the new GI bill. Ensure that veterans coming in or back to school have as much support as possible. Veterans should not have to worry about their tuition not being paid due to incompetence, so make sure who ever handles that can deal with the stress and deadlines.
• Bring back the New York Times!
• Please continue funding trips taken by various clubs. Learning takes place both in and out of the classroom, so it is important for different organizations to be able to go and see museums or performances or lectures at other schools. Similarly, keep trips that PAC does, such as the trips into New York City or Boston. Yes- college is about education. However, it's important to be able to take a break every once in a while. After all, most learning in college takes place out of the classsroom, anyway!
• Keep the Academic Resource Mentor (ARM) position. This position is lesser known than Resident Assistants; however, they are just as important. They help keep students in the hall organized and remembering that they are in college to be students. They offer academic advice, make themselves known through their respective halls, and truly add a wonderful element to the Housing and Residence Life staff.
• Please don't cut funding for programs like Access Ability Services, the counseling center, & CHOICES. Access ability is staffed by a select few paid employees, the bulk of the services are offered by undergraduate and graduate interns, so in reality the program does not cost the university what it really would due to the free labor provided by these interns. Also, create a program that offers accomodations for students in recovery from addiction. As great as Access ability is, accomodations are given to students with physical, emotional, and cognitive disabilties. CHOICES should become more of a campus-based recovery program, offering self-help groups, assistance in securing sober housing, and support like accomodations, and have WCSU become a recovery school, www.recoveryschools.org. Also, create a position within the counseling center by bringing on a social worker who will provide access to resources for struggling students such as young parents, and young independent adults.
• Student activities like barbeques on the quad should not be cut, in fact there should be more events like them. They provide a drug/alcohol-free environment, which cannot be said of what goes on at the dorms or the student apartments. If the University is going to put its money anywhere, it should be supporting drug free environments and activities.
• Is it possible to look at a different approach to the way we deliver health and mental health services to students. There are some new strategies emerging that could work well here at WCSU. Perhaps some of these new strategies are due to finiancial constraints that force us to review how and why we do things a certain way. However, some of these also make sense from a systems approach to providing such services to a homogenious population such as University students. This would require some policy, changes, but if done thoughtfully and correctly could benefit our students and University.
• Increased attention to and involvement of greek life on campus.
• More funding for the debate team.
• I seriously envy the science clubs in a good way. They have the most structured facilities for a club in the entire campus, having a kitchenette in the club is awesome that thus provides a good and quite place to study where many people share the same interests. Having such a structure done for other clubs would make them not to be worried about administrative annoyances that many clubs spent a lot of precious time on getting it through the bureaucracy of the university, one common example is reserving rooms for meetings so it would look formal instead of informal meetings at various campus locations.
  
  I would suggest setting aside a room with kitchenette for the club of Social Sciences, probably located in the Warner Hall, where it would include the Anthropology, Economics, Political Science since these areas are closely related. I think that would enhance the students involvement and it would create a place for exchange of ideas a key element for social sciences, diversity.
• 24 hour study lounge.
  
  I would suggest adding more 24 hour study lounge, like the one in the science building second floor. The space on the 24 hour computer labs is usually limited and sometimes it gets crowed.
  
  Another option would be to have library opened until late night 2 am - 3 am most days of the week (if the entire building cannot be open maybe some floors could). It is hard to concentrate while the librarian keeps announcing that the library will close. Almost every time I get there the library is closing, so many people like me will go the science building study lounge where it gets filled fast.
• It Would be nice If you were given an overload that you could register online for the class. I am only allowed 17.99 credits. I want to take 18.00 credits and have been given the ability to do so but am unable to register for the class remotely, which is only offered once next semester, because of this rule. A dean/advisor should have the ability to eliminate this when allowing a student to overload. I hope I donot miss out on the class.

Outstanding Faculty

• Hire needed and quality full time faculty to maintain and build our academic excellence.
• Keep faculty in the classroom and don't overburden with administrative roles that could be done cheaper with good UA's. In these economic time, many qualified people will be seeking a good UA position.
• Secure and maintain staff and faculty positions that have direct impact on students e.g. counselors (both in the Counseling Center, Admissions and CHOICES), teaching faculty (full and part-time) and those in Student Affairs who assist in preparing students upon graduation.
• This one is the most obvious. We need professors to keep the school running!
• Keep the quality of the lectures the same, please dont cut tenure or fire professors to hire adjuncts who may lack teaching ability
• Our strength is the spark that lights up the eyes of our outstanding faculty. Support the intellectual rigor and creativity of the faculty. The greater the teaching load, the more the university turns into a diploma mill. The greater the support for creative and intellectual endeavors, the more the university turns into the cultural hub of western Connecticut.
• I would also create environment for professor to get federal, state, and non governmental grants in order get resource for the WCSU that in would normality cost the school money.
• Please consider hiring more full time faculty and fewer adjuncts. It's so important for students to be able to receive help from their professors outside of the classroom.
• Maintain enough faculty to continue to provide a quality education. Some departments have very few professors, resulting in limited class options and scheduling nightmares. While cuts need to be made in some places, consider thinning out the more robust departments, or allow professors to crossover departments if they are qualified to teach different subjects. Interdisciplinary classes would help this, as well.
• Employee performance should be evaluated in all departments. I have had several different employees in several departments tell me to figure things out myself and give me the run-around because they either 1) did not know how to help me or 2) were not willing to help me. As a new student I found this very unproductive, and unacceptable.
• Most students are not interested in whether a faculty member is full-time or part-time. They are more interested in fairness, clarity, and helpfulness. Additionally, most students would prefer not to be put to sleep in class, and they like professors who are organized. So, rather than focus on full-time v. part-time, continue to provide resources to help full-time and part-time faculty members improve.
• Please continue to have students fill out Course Evaluations for faculty members. In addition, make the results accessible to all students.
• We must strive to keep the most qualified and engaging faculty in our classrooms to help our students reach their maximum potential.
  
  More attention should be placed on quality learning outcomes than on ‘years of service’.
• Provide real support for faculty research. The university expects research from faculty but provides an absurdly low number of release time credits to allow for a reduction in course load. With four courses, there is little time for research. 60 or so release hours for over 200 faculty is insufficient, and barely a token.
• If we are required to have a meal plan, there is no reason why the food quality should be poor. It is not impossible for Sodexo to make good food everyday, yet they still manage to fail completely three out of the five days during the week. I will not even start about the quality of food for the weekend. It seems like the weekend food is leftover food that has expired. So please enforce the need for good quality food!
• Be more leniant PLEASE with due dates for money! It seems like we are constantly being asked for money and it gets nerve racking and stressful. Be more leniant with the fact that students may have handed things in on time yet they were told otherwise. It is quite annoying.
• Students should be offered more parking on midtown campus. There is not enough room for everyone who drives over. And there are limited parking spots in the lots that we do have. And on top of that we are only alowed an hour's worth of time at that slot. Many students have more than one class or have a class that is more than an hour. Maybe the Litchfield parking garage should be open to all students.
• WCSU shoud search for computer science adjuncts to bring in the passion they have for their job into the classroom.

Libraries

• Support the libraries.
• Continue support for the library
• Support the libraries where students can really study and do their research.
• Support the libraries and their programs
• Academic libraries, both bricks-and-mortar and virtual, are a central and critical component of support for learning, teaching, and research in a university. Library faculty and staff are committed to providing the highest level of service to the WCSU community.
  
  Funds for learning resources and collections--including print monographs, ebooks and online databases--should be maintained and increased in coming years to support the academic programs of WCSU. Systems and software which allow WCSU libraries to provide excellent services and resources to students anywhere, anytime, also require robust support.
  
  Students depend on WCSU Libraries to successfully negotiate an increasingly complex information/knowledge environment. Information literacy and strong research skills enable them to succeed in their coursework and to become productive citizens and lifelong learners.
• Longer library hours.

Advisement

• Focus on truly streamlining the advising process so that students are not spending more time (i.e. more finances) than required to obtain the degree. I meet way too many financilly strapped students who are paying for summer classes and/or staying more than an extra YEAR, which could be avoided with more dedicated advising resources.
• The support of The Academic Advisement Center is priceless, particularly when my students are ignored by their advisors, which happens all too frequently.
• Provide dedicated release time credits to each department so that advising can be done by the faculty who are most interested and most competent at quality student advising.
• More political science advisors.

Affordability

• Affordable tuition for CT residents
• Please do not raise tuition, people are going to start to need to drop out of school because of this. Parents are losing their jobs, students need to get jobs to help with bills and pay their own student loans. Please cut student activities, make the food more expensive, give all clubs the same small amount of money, have soroities and fraternities raise all there own money, do not allow the SGA to have any SGA events, turn off lights in classrooms and open all the blinds that are always down, open windows in the spring/fall and tell students to wear a jacket in the winter.
  
  I'd rather have no activities, a cold school, and a non-manicured lawn, than be forced to drop out of college and work in retail for the rest of my life.
  
  Cut wasteful spending.
• Student activties like ridiculous foam parties and quad day should be cut first. Education and academia should recieve as much funding as possible because that is what truly matters, not if little Johnny has the college party experience or not. Educational and influential clubs like Roots & Shoots, the Biology Club, the Debate Team, Education Club, the Philosophy Club, the Chemistry Club, etc. should get funding for academic events that bring some sort of educational value to WCSU.
  
  Don't raise our tuition, or student activity fees. Just take away any frivilous or PR related activities. All WCSU students, including myself, could use more time to study and give WCSU a better name.
• Tuition just keeps going up steadily while the ability to pay goes down, please keep tuition costs from rising
• Keep the tuition as low as possible. A lot of students come here, including myself, because the tuition is a lot lower than other schools, yet you are still getting a great education. If the tuition raises too much it will turn many away.
• Keeping full-time tuition as low as possible is extremely important. It is already diffficult for many of us students to pay already as it is.

Quality Academic Programs

• Continue support for Visual and Performing Arts, including the new building.
• Continue support for the Nursing program and science departments that directly support the Nursing program
• Continue support for the general education curriculum
• Confidence in a bright future and a proactive move to make it one through whatever venue is most rational, logical and realistic. If push comes to shove, cut funding for student groups...Anything to maintain or augment the quality of education we have now. Without education there can be no bright future.
• Please continue to support the arts programs here at Western. There are some absolutely fantastic faculty members and student performers that attend here. The quality of education that many music majors receive is comparable to or even greater than those at colleges 2x, 3x, even 4x more expensive. It is truly one of the great gems of Danbury and it would be a shame to see such a program that is finally getting the recognition it deserves lose steam because of a few years of economic turmoil.
• Please DO NOT cut any 200 level or above classes. WCSU already doesn't have enough of them and students end up needing to pay for five years instead of four. If anything cut some 100 level courses, that is if it's courses that are going to be cut.
  
  WCSU cannot afford to lose anymore 200 and 300 level courses.
• Cut programs that will NOT get students decent jobs and put money into ones that will. We live a an age of globalization and people from India now have some of our simpliest jobs from here. Majors like music and art do not make money, nor are their many jobs in those fields.
  
  We need to put money into the majors that will be able to compete in the global society like computer science, economics, political science, chemistry, biology, earth science, envirnmental science, mathematics, philosophy, finance, and accounting.
  
  The first majors to lose funding should be drama, theater, music, art, communication, etc. If anything wealthy private donors could always fund those. Lets make priorites, a musical theater major will contribute much less to society than an biologist or lawyer(poli sci).
• I love Western Connecticut State University, I want to see academic programs grow, educational standards soar higher, and students be able to easily take higher maths and sciences. Money should be cut on ANYTHING that does not have directly to do with education.
  
  People go to school to learn, so they can get a job in the real world. It is not fair that the half of us who do not want to party and slide by on C's are forced to have our money go to turning the quad into a skating rink, or sibling's weekend, or quad day, or frat parties that are nothing more than burgers and music, funded by our dollar. Wasteful student activities must go.
  
  Education must prevail!
• I know this is a state university, therefore admissions standards are relatively less strict than private universities, however, I read a suggestion that had to do with incoming classes being more "top heavy" as it was put. I have to say I could not agree more. In all honesty, it is extremely disheartening to have to attend a State University do to purely economic family factors (not being able to afford a 30 or 40K a year school) and have to be in classes with students who cannot adequately read or spell. This IS a UNIVERSITY, a degree granting institute. I know I am not the only one who feels slighted when simple grammar, spelling, and formatting of papers has to be reviewed again and again, especially in Professional writing courses. I have had professors who cannot even spell correctly, and not typos, but consistent mis-spelling and mispronunciation of simple words! to make a long and SAD story short: Increase academic admissions requirements, and hire better, more educated staff.
• Maintain smaller class sizes. I realize this will be very difficult to do if we are mandated to cut costs, but I think that is one of our excellent features. Class size expansion should be considered very carefully, and on a program by program, or even class by class, basis.
• Eliminating classes and/or increasing class sizes is not the answer. In the long run this would only affect the value and level of the student's education which in turn will de-value WCSU's reputation.
• Maintaining, even improving, existing Science programs, including sufficient and qualified faculty, well-stocked labs, and extensive course offerings. So many schools cut these things during a budget crisis. Having state-of-the-art science facilities is absolutely necessary for a university. We undergraduates majoring in the sciences depend on it. Otherwise, we will not receive adequate lab training, and upon graduation will not be fully prepared for graduate work or for a job.
• Nursing labs (White Hall and Higgins)
• Dedicated to educating the next generation of business professionals in the state of CT.
• AACSB accredidation - the state university with top accredidation
• Active involvement in economic development in the state of CT through entrepreneurialship and business programs.
• I agree with having higher standards of admission and making sure that the students that are admitted are ready for a university education. It takes away from classes and also affects interested and smart students when a teacher needs to spend more energy in classes with students who are neither interested nor ready. A couple of people I know have actually decided to leave WestConn because they believe they are not getting a good education as a result of this. The school ends up losing those students who are actually here because they are interested and they want to do the work and learn. That, I think, is very very sad and in the end does affect the reputation of WestConn.
• Ensure access to degree programs of high quality for academically qualified students, regardless of their ability to pay. Base scholarships on ability plus need. As a state university we have an obligation to identify and prepare future leaders.
• I do not know the complexities of the school budget, but I have a suggestion that I feel would benefit the members of the music department. We just recieved brand new Mac computers in our MIDI lab (the others were only a couple years old) and brand new keyboards. Meanwhile, the practice rooms have leaks, broken doors, filthy walls, and out of tune pianos. It seems as though a lot of money is going to upgrade the music technology aspect of Westconn while no money is going for basic needs such as decent practice rooms, working pianos and rental instruments, etc.
• The historical and intellectual CORE of a university education is the Arts & Sciences so WCSU should avoid further erosion of A&S programs --- even though there frequently are no undergraduate accrediting organizations for such programs. Maintenance of the A&S programs should have the highest priority because without a strong A&S school, WCSU runs the risk of becoming technical schools rather than a university.
• Quality, undergraduate education, of necessity, comes BEFORE graduate education and this temporal priority should guide future budget decisions. WCSU cannot afford to divert so many resources to graduate programs if it doesn't have enough resources to fund quality undergraduate education at a level sufficient to meet the needs of our undergraduate students.
• Upper level classes are of extreme importance to this University, and during the budget cuts I hope to see more lower level classes eliminated and the current amount of upper level classes to remain intact. Specifically in the Political Science Department, we have too many one hundred level courses and not enough upper level classes. This is the same with economics. What would be best for the University is to maintain its upper level courses while decreasing the amount of one hundred level courses. This would enable students to graduate on time, and only make a small inconvenience for freshman and sophomores since they will have to be more flexible with their schedules.
  
  I also find it important to mention that I find it to be very important that we keep the Economics Department. Even though we have few economics majors, we have an excellent staff of professors and their classes are extremely beneficial in conjunction with financial and sociological studies.
• The Ancell School of Business (ASB) must continue to receive support for its AACSB Accreditation efforts.
  
  AACSB Accreditation is critically important to the long term viability of the ASB as it competes with UCONN, Fairfield, Sacred Heart, Quinnipiac and Pace for the best business students and faculty.
  
  AACSB Accreditation is also critically important to our graduates as they compete for jobs with graduates from UCONN, Fairfield, Sacred Heart, Quinnipiac and Pace.
• WCSU should continue to invest heavily in the Nursing and Music programs as they are high quality and they greatly enhance the reputation of WCSU in the region.
• WCSU should reduce the number of General Education Requirements from 45 credits to 39 credits by requiring 6 credits of Social and Behavioral Sciences instead of 12. This would give departments the ability to offer 2 more courses in their majors which would be more helpful for employment and graduate school admission.
• Eliminate all remedial coursework. High school math should be taught in high school, and the area schools need to take responsibility for this. Students who cannot move directly into college-level courses should not be admitted.
• Please continue supporting the visual and performing arts as well as the new arts building. Our music program is an acredited program, which is very hard to do, and there are jobs available for the performing arts students. If people who think it should be cut actually took the time out of their day to see how talented our music department, students and staff, is they would be surprised. Keep music as a major! It's one of the largest majors at westconn!
• Please continue to fund the various events of the music department, such as Jazz Fest and the large-scale operas. These programs are expensive; however, they bring indispensable opportunities for the music department, the WestConn community, and the surrounding community. For example, Jazz Fest brought Maria Schneider to the University. Her appearance is the equivalent of hosting Duke Ellington seventy years ago. We are taking part in history! The Ives Concert Flutists brought Jeanne Baxtresser to work with the flutists. She has played with the New York Philharmonic for fifteen years. Producing an opera such as The Magic Flute or The Marriage of Figaro brings together various sections within the music department to create something beautiful. These events, in turn, also bring revenue to the University as well as promote the department to potential students.
• I suggest that you keep the music department in high standards. Not only is it one of the most popular majors of this university, but it also makes great revenue for the university through things such as the Jazz Festival and many others. Thank you.
• Do not compromise the quality, well-known music program you have worked so hard to build. Music is essential to all areas of study and aspects of life. Unfortunately it is usually the first curriculum to be affected by budget cuts. Please don't let this happen to the music program here.
• Please don't reduce the sections for courses at least 300 or above. To say not to cut courses that will provide students with money making career and cut those that dont like, music and arts is ignorant because those majors do make money--photography, illustration, graphic design, art and music therapy, etc. Courses should not be cut according to money making capability- a wise person once said "If you love what you do, you'll never have to work again a day in your life". Thirdly, the elimination of courses based on money making potential also violates students' right to self-determination. Also, please add more sections in the social work program! We are growing, and also need a bigger office space as we share it with the art department, and we have professors who do not have personal offices to meet with students. Also, create more sections for substance abuse counseling courses! Theres only one professor who teaches them, and just one section.
• WCSU might consider making a more direct connection between the programs we offer and state/regional/national workforce needs and trends. Perhaps grow programs in the area of STM (science-technology-medicine) that are cutting edge in nature. Programs which could promote innovation and growth of new industries/economies in the state. Ideas include: alternative energy/energy conservation, engineering (in areas where development of academic programs would not be cost prohibitive), applied sciences, electronic record keeping/information management, Internet/WWW/IT: social media, cloud computing, mobile computing, innovation in technologies in support of fine/performing arts. WCSU could benefit from more intense promotion of fine work by students in applied areas, work that furthers greater good/economic health of the state. Tap into areas/issues which major philanthropic/grantmaking agencies are addressing through their initiatives.
• In this time of economic decline, with hiring freezes on faculty positions, does the university really need two new assistant football coaches? Where does this help the academic programs of the university? A radical suggestion is to cut this very costly athletic program, as some very large universities have done. The $1M per year spent on this program that serves maybe 100 students could better serve most of the students with more tutors, faculty, and even work-study programs in academic areas. If not a cut, then at least a reduction in the number of trainers, coaches, assistants, etc. - numbers that match faculty lines that serve fall more students.
• Ditch the PE requirement for graduation. It's wasteful to pay people to teach badminton and power walking at the university level- we all had plenty of that in elementary and high school. The information learned in the lecture section is useless and should be obvious to anyone with half a brain. This requirement does nothing to make graduates more marketable. As a consumer, I feel the money I spent on this class was wasted.
• I am a part time student at West Conn. I have only 9 classes before i graduate. I have been looking for employment but, I don't drive or have a car, therefore I can't get a job that is in Stamford, Norwalk, etc because by the time I finish work I would never make it on time to West Conn. because I take the metro north. I think that this college needs to have more online classes for people like myself, more history classes (which is my major) online because they don't have any. This has been a major problem of mine for the past two years now (since I take public transportation). This would be a benefit to many people who are in the same position as myself.
• I feel that it's unfair to require the HPX seminar & activity & only give each of them one credit for a total of two.

Administrative Support

• I used to teach at another university prior to teaching at WCSU. I am shocked that we function so well with so little support. I don't want the university to cut secretarial support to departments. My department has only one secretary, though we used to have two. I fear the current secretary may leave as she is overworked. Office support is an essential part of the operation of our programs.

Cost Savings

• My prior university saved money by closing most of the campus on Fridays, especially in the summer when enrollment was lower. Certain buildings had AC or heat adjusted on Fridays to save energy. The staff affected by that did not have their hours cut. Instead, they worked 40 hours in 4 days (secretaries)or, if the needed to be on campus (custodial staff), they worked in other buildings on Fridays.
• If things were reogranized in some ways it might bring costs down. When paperwork has to be done and redone several times it holds things up as well as the convoluted communications between the school and the students. Many times things get ignored for a long very long time before ever getting addressed-like the mail systems in the dorms are very inefficient.
• I would also add programs to save school money like reduce energy cost buy turn off the lights in classrooms that are not in use.
• I think before cutting "the fat" out of the school, steps should be taken to save money in other ways. We should enforce turning off lights, computers, and other peripherals in order to save energy. Invest in motion sensors for lighting in hallways and classrooms. Have students TURN OFF the library computers instead of simply logging off. The computers are fast and boot-up time is not long enough to cause inconviences. This is the "real fat" that needs to be taken care of first. Any savings is good savings, not to mention the benefits of being environmentally friendly. Lets make WCSU a pioneer in terms of efficient college campuses.
• The fact printing is free at this institution is a God-send, both black-and-white, and color. I believe printing should stay free, however if the cost of paper and ink becone an issue, allot a certain number of pages per day per student, and ensure that allotment is followed via ID scanning and such.
• Cut wasteful spending. Do research in terms of the lowest price for items the same way price research is done for big-price projects. Paying $1 for a box of pens because it is from a certain company should not happen when a different company offers the same pen for less than half the price.
• Go greener. There are many programs sponsored by the government that provide tax credits/cuts and other incentives for more green technologies (i.e. solar panels). If solar panels, and other energy saving utilities were installed and applied to the university, thousands of dollars could be saved each month just on utilities alone.
• Yale University has installed a device on their treadmills that harvests the energy exerted by the exercizer. That energy can be used to power electronic devices or even a building. Check out
  
  http://sites.google.com/site/greengymproject/
  
  I've heard of people installing this device at home. Some people power their TV by walking on a treadmill. It saves money on electricity, it's a good green solution, and it encourages fitness. Perhaps someone could explore whether we could install these devices in our gym.
• If possible, look into using different ingredients for food in the cafeteria. Using food from a local markets not only massively bolsters the local economy, but will also save some money for the school as well as add more freshness to the meals.
• Most students must pay for photocopies made at the library, but there is no charge for printing from a computer to any printer in labs or classrooms. This leads to some indiscriminant printing and could be a problem next year, when “open source” textbooks are going to be used for some classes. Students can download the text free to their computer and then print out the book on University printers. This could amount to approximately 600+ pages per student. There should be a counter on the print function that would bill students for printing. Since paper and toner costs make up most of the cost of printing, this could result in substantial savings.
• would suggest voluntary reduction in hours, for example, if business is slow from 8 to 9 am or 8 to 10 am, if a young mom wanted to reduce those hours voluntarily, and take the reduced pay it should be offered. As long as the proposed office is covered effectively, why not?
  
  Especially during off peak times, this may reduce costs.
  
  I do feel unions could pose a problem, but if it is voluntary? and if the usual salary is recorded in cases of disabiltiy, workers comp etc, I can't see there being much of a problem
  
  I gather co-workers could get angry... resentful
  
  Food for thought
• I think we should all include a green signature footer like "please consider the environment before printing this email" in our email account. This prevents wasting paper and helping to preserve the environment.
• While I would love to keep free printing, it would not be disastrous to take the printers out of the residence halls. These printers generally don't have paper in them and use up electricty. There are printers in the libary and in the twenty-four hour computer lab (keep those too!) that residents can use if they have not invested in their own printer.
• I think we should have fee-based printing. It is rediculous how many students print unneccesary paper.
• How about using eBay to sell surplus or used property (that is no longer needed on campus)? Perhaps work-study students could be employed to photograph and post items on the eBay website.
• RA's should be compensated room and board only. Their desk hours should not be an additional compensation in addition to the room and board compensation.
• Eilimate the System office it will save about 6 million dollars.
• Possibly implement a wind farm installation. West Side campus is perpetually windy.
• Maybe we should have [look for] more donors who would be donating $ to have their names in buildings and arenas and so forth. In that way the university could have some extra cash for paying the growing costs of teaching.
• Some more classes could be offered as a fast section of 2 or 3 weeks so more people could go through the system and generate resources faster at the same time that it would create more appeal and interest. Some classes could be worth have of the credits, so it could be taught in smaller increments, that would make more affordable mini classes and would give more flexibility (inclusively, of payment) to students and instructors. If someone has to flunk a class such as this it would be more appeailng to have that person to come back to repeat it.
• What about creating a system where there are 3 or 4 semesters in the year in a faster track structure, in that way more classes could be offered serving more people. That system could release students earlier to pursue other intersts and even more classes. For professors it would generate more work and would help, with jobs, more people.
• What about creating more classes online, with some sort of discount (maybe 20%), so it would bring more people to its core. The idea would help save resources, space and labor for the university.
• This suggestion was made by a student in one of my sections who asked that I submit it: solicit donations to make-up the operating fund deficit.

Housing

• Maintence in housing. They aren't around on weekends so if something goes wrong students on campus must wait until a weekday to get help for it. They do a pretty good job mainting things under a low budget, but I wish it was more comprehensive. Also-I wish the housing deposit worked like it sounds like it does in that it not only holds your spot in housing but is also a deposit against damages so that if harm comes to the dorm it does not get billed later and is instead taken out of the deposit.
• Honors housing
• If you are going to charge more for rooming and housing I suggest you keep everything in tip top shape. Everything should be fixed before students come into their housing, and we should be offered housing that feels more homey.
• The schooling experience would be drastically cheaper for some families, if first-year students/centennial hall residents weren't required to buy the Unlimited Meal Plan. I'm not sure if there is some sort of law/rule that enforces this as a University policy, but I strongly feel that at the college level, us students should be capable of regulating our food intake. A 5'3" female, in most cases, is not going to require as much food as a 5'11" male. Though it is nice to have such dining options, it should be up to the student and/or their family's discretion as to which meal plan they choose for their child.
• Please do not cut down spending for housing. In fact, invest more into it by either building a new dorm for students who want to live in an environment that encourages and fosters wellness-- a living environment either for those in recovery from addiction or those that just choose not to drink or do drugs, or students that just want to live in a quiet environment. If a new building is too much, than please designate a couple of floors to an already existing one for this purpose. If this cant be done, than additional money should be allocated to students who need to rent off campus because the current housing environment on and off campus is detrimental to students in recovery, & students shouldnt have to pay more in utilities etc just because the university is making a stand against drinking in the dorms, so if nothing can be done its essentially denying those students access to resources...which is actually a form of oppression.
• I understand the need for residential hall programming, however the vast budgets supplied to the residence halls are not necessary. There is room for a budget cut for all halls. ]

Campus

• The grounds of both campuses are beautiful. Please continue to take precious care of the lawns, gardens, and trees.
• The folks who maintain our buildings do a beautiful job, and they work very hard. Let's be sure to support them.