USA Cuts Entire Department

Cutting an entire department is how the University of South Alabama is dealing with budget cuts.

Ron Franks is the Vice President of Health Sciences. He says by getting rid of the Clinical Laboratory Sciences program, the school can save $200,000 a year.

Most graduates of the CLS program go on to do lab work in hospitals.

According to the program's director Vicki Barrett, medicine could not survive without the work on the professional that go through programs like this. "70% of all medical decisions and 80% of all diagnoses come directly from the testing CLS graduates perform in the clinical laboratory."

In recent years, CLS enrollment has dropped and Franks says there are only 9 students in the program with 5 faculty members.

Even with the dwindling numbers, Franks admits it was a hard decision to make. "The agony that we went through to reach this decision and the distress of those affected by it is almost immeasurable. I mean, it's just been an extremely difficult decision to reach."

Three of the faculty members will lose their jobs next year, another will be transferred and the fifth has already resigned.

Franks tells us that those already in the pre-professional phase of the program have some choices. The University of West Florida is offering in-state tuition for students willing to transfer. The University of Southern Mississippi is considering the same offer.