After nearly $70,000 in budget cuts since 2008, the math department was forced to decide between two options: losing undergraduate graders or losing the Math Help Center.
The Math Help Center won out — and the 33 graders who served the department last year are out of a job.
Peter Mucha, chairman of the mathematics department, said the decision was difficult because of high demand for the center, which is especially popular for non-majors.
Karl Petersen, director of undergraduate studies in math, said 33 graders were hired in fall 2009 — a reduction of 15 graders from the previous year’s fall semester.
“This is a cut that doesn’t make anyone happy,” Mucha said.
The mathematics department spent $44,000 on graders in the 2009-10 school year. Graders were paid $500 per semester for five hours of grading each week.
Mucha said graduate students have taken over all the tutoring in the Math Help Center, which had previously been the responsibility of undergraduate students.
“The Math Help Center is helpful,” Mucha said. “It gets used a lot, and we are definitely going to keep that thing open.”
Petersen said reports from last fall showed that the center served an average of 50 students a night.