A popular series of honors courses is slated to be the latest victim of budget cuts to UNC’s academic programs.
Elements of Politics, a collection of eight seminars taught by Larry Goldberg, a lecturer in the English department, will now be offered half as often in an effort to save the honors program money.
Two courses were previously offered each semester, but now only one will be offered.
Although the series will still exist, the change has provoked protest from current students and alumni who have taken the classes. A petition to restore the full offering has sprung up online and has received nearly 150 signatures.
Goldberg is known primarily for teaching the long-running series, which focuses on discussion of a wide range of modern and classical political works by thinkers ranging from Plato and Aristotle to Locke and Rousseau.
Honors program officials decided to cancel course sections after the office was forced to shuffle its priorities, said Jim Leloudis, associate dean of the program.
“We just simply aren’t able to afford today many of the things that we could in the past,” Leloudis said.
“It is about balancing priorities and taking into account all the expenditures that are very important to students,” he added.
Leloudis said other priorities for the office include study abroad scholarships, research funds to support senior theses, and new courses to help science majors stay enrolled in the program.