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Purdue faculty say cuts will hurt areas with most diversity

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) – Some Purdue University faculty say a plan to overhaul graduate education negatively affects disciplines with the most minority and female graduate students.

A five-year initiative laid out last semester by College of Liberal Arts Dean David Reingold would raise graduate teaching assistants’ pay and trim their teaching loads by reducing incoming graduate students’ class size and making faculty teach more undergraduate classes.

Budget cuts would come next year to departments including English, communications and languages and cultures under the proposed plan. Departments that would receive more funding are anthropology, history, political science, sociology, philosophy and visual and performing arts.The (Lafayette) Journal & Courier reports some faculty members argue that departments facing cuts have the most diversity, while those getting more funding are less diverse.