The Mississippi public school system has taken some hard hits to the budget in recent years, and this effects Delta State University because it is a public institution. Some of these budget cuts have led to some tough decisions that had to be made by the institution’s leaders. There have been some murmurs about some location issues with the social work program, and though some could believe this could involve the lack of a budget, there are other factors causing the ruckus.

Ziegel Hall is home to part of Delta State’s music program, but it recently has been overcome by asbestos. The building renovations have left the music department to find a temporary place to study. While the bottom half of Bailey Hall has also been a home to the music program, the upper part of the building is where Delta State’s highly accredited social work program resides. Since Ziegel Hall’s bad luck, social work staff and Delta State’s vice president of academic affairs, Charles McAdams, have met to discuss social work program moving to another building.

According to sources that wish to remain anonymous, Delta State is not making the move optional. The social work program must move to another location on campus, opening up the upper half of Bailey to the music program while Ziegel is being renovated. This is meant to be a temporary move; however, some students have their doubts.

“I’m just afraid, according to Delta State’s track record, that they will just kind of forget about them, and let the program die away,” said Brittany Smart, a social work major here at DSU. “But both the music program and the social work program need to be accommodated and protected.”

The school has offered two other building options to the social work program for the temporary change, but neither option meets the requirements needed to keep the social work program here at Delta State accredited.

The unfortunate occurrences at Ziegel Hall caused stress on both the social work and music program here at Delta State, but the school leaders are doing the best they can to smooth out the issues. With the punches to the budget, it is understandable how it can worry students and staff in the different programs about whether they will be protected in their areas of study, but the social work and music program mix up is just a bit of a building issue. The social work program is safe and will surely be back up and running at their best as soon as Delta State gets the renovation done, and everyone can go back to their normal spaces.