While this is an intriguing idea, let me tell you what it looks like for my department, Spanish and Portuguese. We currently have 13 tenured or tenure-track faculty, three of whom teach one semester per year as they approach retirement. Seven years ago, we had 18 professors and around 100 Spanish majors; presently, with the 12.5 people we have working, we have 260 Spanish majors. Many students already cannot get into classes that they need.

While funding interdisciplinary appointments is one way to rethink the university, it can only be done successfully after basic staffing needs are met. Giving our department one or two halves of these 100 new hires is not going to allow us to uphold the standards of education for which the department and KU have been recognized.

As voters send their children back to schools this fall with increased fees at all levels in Kansas, we need to seriously consider the leadership capabilities of candidates who promise no tax increases. Those of us who are members of the KU faculty also need to organize ourselves to fight the continuing threat to quality education; a threat that has not been ameliorated by increased tuition funds over which we have no control.

Jill S. Kuhnheim,

Lawrence