Letter To The Editor:
The community of Edwardsville values the arts. Can you imagine living in Edwardsville without the Edwardsville Symphony performing concerts in the park, or the three-day Arts Fair? 
I was shocked when I recently learned that our local university planned drastic cuts to its arts programs for the upcoming year.
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The Department of Arts and Sciences will end many tenure-track positions and only hire adjunct faculty to fill those positions in the future – a move that will enable leadership to avoid providing benefits or paying an adequate salary to highly-trained instructors.
The Department also intends to reduice the number of graduate assistantships offered. These strategies may save the Department money in the short term, but will result in dire long-term consequences. SIUE will attract fewer highly-qualified students and faculty members to the school, diminishing the quality of the arts programs overall.
This will be a tragedy for the Edwardsville community. Numerous local artists and musicians received their training from SIUE, and Edwardsville will suffer in the long term when the caliber of local artistic skill declines.
I invite community members to protest by contacting SIUE's Chancellor, Dr. James T. Minor, at chancellor@siue.edu.
Most sincerely yours,
Marcie Monaco
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