Officials from GW’s doctoral psychology program are scrambling to cope with the loss of almost $300,000 in funding that could force the program to cancel a third of its spring classes.

The program, part of the Center for Professional Psychology, has incurred about 60 percent of the Columbian College of Arts Sciences’ budget cuts for the 2003-04 fiscal year, program officials said.

The cuts total $297,000 and could ultimately force the center to eliminate the program, officials said.

Three core faculty positions have already been terminated and five professors have received 18 percent pay cuts. Program officials said they might have to eliminate up to 25 of the program’s 75 spring courses. Current fall classes were not affected by the cuts.

“It’s very devastating,” said program director James Miller. “At the moment it seems like it’s so devastating that we may or may not survive it.,”

Miller said he would be meeting with CCAS Dean William Frawley in the next few days in an attempt to whittle down the number of canceled classes.

The program has trained doctoral candidates for careers in clinical psychology since 1996. The cuts could mean the loss of American Psychological Association accreditation, which faculty members described as critical.

There are currently 170 students in the program.

Frawley declined to directly comment on the issue and gave no specific information on which other CCAS programs were affected by the cuts, but he acknowledged that the doctoral psychology program was “affected.”

“I don’t think it is appropriate to discuss details of the reductions other than to say that they come from a range of areas in the (Columbian) College budget,” Frawley said in an e-mail.

Professors and students expressed disappointment with the cuts and said they were dissatisfied with the lack of input they were allowed before the final decision was made.

Miller said he was first informed of the cuts in June, after they were “in the process” of being implemented for the fiscal year, which started July 1. He said he met with Frawley two times before the final decision was made.

Many students said they first heard about the reductions in a town hall meeting held in late September in which Frawley addressed the program’s full student body.

“He made all these cuts without knowing anything about our program or what it is that we do there,” said class representative Karla Steingraber. “We’re very disappointed he didn’t take more time to learn about the program,” she added.

Frawley said that the departments affected by the CCAS budget cuts were given advance notice of the situation and had ample opportunity to voice any concerns.

He said the cuts would force programs to develop more efficient ways of operating.

“I went through such reductions myself on the receiving end at a previous institution,” he said. “Perhaps ironically, I found that such reductions ultimately forced me to think in a more focused way about the efficiency of the department and programs I managed there, and those units emerged from the process stronger and more effective.”

One doctoral psychology professor, who wished to remain anonymous, said the program’s faculty structure might have left the center vulnerable to budget cuts.

Eight of the program’s ten core faculty members are part-time staffers with no tenure and annual contracts, making them easy targets for elimination, the professor said.

Dorothy Holmes, professor of clinical psychology, said that if the program survives it would be only a skeleton of its former self.

“If substantially more faculty resources are cut or more courses are cut, we won’t be able to deliver on the program we’re committed to,” she said.

Some students said Frawley encouraged them to take classes offered in other departments to replace those that will be discontinued.

“He has this idea that we can take classes in the anthropology department or the neurology department,” Steingraber said. “While that might be interesting, it wouldn’t really be furthering what we’re trying to learn.”

Program officials said they were optimistic that they could stave off part of the cuts.

“I am personally committed to trying to work with (Frawley) to arrive at a satisfactory resolution to the issue,” Holmes said.

“We remain hopeful,” Miller said. “We’ll continue to work with the dean’s office as long as they’re willing to work with us to see if the situation can be approved.”