<p>I'll just like to hear about how the financial situation is affecting a cash-rich private university such as Stanford, if at all?</p>
<p>Just google “Stanford budget cuts.” There are plenty of Daily articles about it. In general, the administration’s goal is to “protect” students and faculty from the budget cuts, though it’s hard to hide this sort of thing. (Staff reduction is most important, it seems.)</p>
<p>Yes, undergraduate research funding has gone down, but it’s still probably more than any other university in the country–at its peak, it was at around $4-5 million, but now has been reduced to $3-4 million.</p>
<p>Some interdisciplinary majors are getting cut, as well as some of the culture themed organizations.</p>
<p>Some of the interdisciplinary majors are being cut? That’s definitely news to me. Do you have a link? I can’t seem to find anything on it. (It would surprise me greatly to hear that Stanford is cutting an interdisciplinary major–education is the very last thing that they would cut, especially an interdisciplinary study, which Stanford emphasizes.)</p>
<p>[Financial</a> woes force axing of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities](<a href=“http://www.stanforddaily.com/cgi-bin/?p=3262]Financial”>http://www.stanforddaily.com/cgi-bin/?p=3262)</p>
<p>I should have rephrased, this is cutting the program Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities.</p>
<p>Cutting this dept. does not under circumstances mean a student cannot pursue an interdisciplinary major. As far as I see, Stanford is setup so that it’s your prerogative, with the tools in place for you to pick interdisciplinary or narrow experiences. The cut is unfortunate, but if you’re willing to petition or to meet the right people, you can shape your major the way you want to (besides maybe economics–that’s a whole different story).</p>
<p>Thank goodness, they’re axing the fuzzy interdisciplinary programs. everyone knows the techies are more important in a recession 
haha</p>
<p>Stanford seems to be weathering the storm well. A lot of other colleges have had to make some terrible cuts. One of my friends (who was on a full athletic scholarship) had her entire program cut out (50 kids were athletes, plus 5 or so coaches) and now has to transfer out of a school she absolutely loves.</p>
<p>Let’s be grateful that Stanford’s doing somewhat OK!</p>
<p>I think it’s important to note that Stanford is cutting a program, not a department. If a department is cut, faculty and staff are displaced or cut, and a few degree programs are removed. In an interdisciplinary program (which doesn’t have the power to hire and fire faculty), cutting it would mean the faculty just continue to work in their normal department, the staff is displaced or cut, the degree program is cut, but all other aspects of a department are kept in tact (like library holdings, office spaces, etc.).</p>
<p>I’d say Stanford is probably weathering this better than most colleges–perhaps even better than Yale or Harvard (Stanford still gets tons of revenue for the land it owns and leases, all the royalties it gets from the 3,000+ tech companies its tied to and all its technologies, etc. not to mention it has some of the most loyal alumni who consistently give far more than its peers’ alumni do).</p>
<p>Not to mention the student body voted to keep special fees for ALL organizations which applied. I’m hesitant to make a clear “in the clear” judgment as of yet, because the cuts announced near the end of the last school year had immediate effects into the summer programs and a relatively few number of departments. I expect more (deeper?) to come in the '09-'10 year.</p>
<p>There are more to come, definitely, but the worst, I think, was this year–trimming the majority of what is to be trimmed. Of course, much of what was decided this year (“the worst”) won’t really be felt until next year, since budgets are set out the year before enacted.</p>