By Melissa Dunson

mdunson@joplinglobe.com

As he watched the twin towers fall seven years ago on television news, Travis Curtice’s understanding of the world underwent a violent shift.

Now a senior at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, Curtice said it was the school’s international studies program that brought him to MSSU from the classrooms of the University of Missouri in his hometown of Columbia.

Curtice was one of hundreds of Missouri Southern students, faculty and alumni who moved in and out of Cornell Auditorium on Friday afternoon to defend the international studies program in the face of a recent 33 percent cut that took the Institute of International Studies’ budget from $419,281 to $279,281.

“We had to change the way we think and if we did not, our ignorance and our biases would come crashing down on us,” Curtice said. “This (international studies) program is not only the reason why I’m at Missouri Southern, but it is also why I am one step closer to becoming a global citizen.”

About 40 students spoke Friday at the forum put together by faculty members, including international studies professor Ann Wyman and English professor Joy Dworkin. They emphasized the importance of the school’s international mission put in place by state legislators in 1996 and urged Missouri Southern President Bruce Speck and the board of governors to reconsider the cuts when developing the 2009-2010 budget.

That reduction was part of $500,000 in cuts that the board charged Speck to make in the university’s 2008-2009 budget.

“Please, please find another way to cut spending,” said Adam Stratton, a 2007 Missouri Southern graduate who said he did not initially want to study outside the country, but found it to be one of the most important experiences in his life.

Speck missed part of the forum to attend the memorial service for the husband of Sally Beard, Missouri Southern athletic director, who died earlier this week. But after the event, Speck told the Globe he both values and plans to continue the international mission, and that students and faculty shouldn’t look at the budget cuts as a threat to that emphasis.

“We do have an international mission, and the question is, ‘How do we continue that mission in the middle of budget issues,’ ” Speck said.

It’s only the latest budget conversation since Speck was hired earlier this year and opened the university’s books to show the school has posted nearly $8 million in deficits in the past three years.

Speck defended the budget cuts despite student arguments that the cut to international studies was “unfair” because other departments saw only a 10 percent reduction. He said the cut was greater, because the budget was so much bigger. Jeff Gibson, Missouri Southern director of budgeting and operations, said the Institute of International Studies has one of the five biggest budgets on campus, topped only by physical plant operations, computer operations and residence life costs.

Speck said administration officials thought long and hard about the cuts and will continue to try and get the best value for the university’s dollar in every budget area. He said students should be prepared for more cuts, but said he did not know if more would be cut from the international studies budget in the future.

Speck said it’s possible some of the international study cuts could be restored once the school balances its budget and said he wants the college to set up endowments for specific trips and programs.