Duke University students are upset after administrators decide on budget cuts that would limit the school's Center For Civic Engagement (DCCE), reported the Duke Chronicle.

The budget cuts, about 40 percent of their initial budget request, will hinder their operations but not eliminate the center's existence, Bob Korstad, interim director of the DCCE and co-director of the program on history, public policy and social change told the Duke Chronicle.

"We have from the provost that the DCCE is not going to go out of existence," Korstad said. "[The center is] going to retain its mission [though] it may be a little more limited because of the budget restrictions."

However, students involved in the DCCE expressed their concern for the future of the center with letters and e-mails to administrators.

Senior Sonam Aidasani sent an e-mail to student leaders urging them to help "save the DCCE" and referred them to junior Adrienne Harreveld, the administration intern at the DCCE.

She said it was difficult to gain support from students due final exams and the end of the semester.

"In the fall when we get back, a more concerted effort will start and the plans for the DCCE will be cleaner," Harrevel told the Duke Chronicle.

In a letter obtained by the Duke Chronicle from Aidasani to administrators, the senior expressed the concern many student leaders had regarding the budget cuts.

"As Duke plans to expand 'knowledge in the service in society,' it keeps not only failing to address this issue, but also compounding the problem... Organizations like the DCCE aim to merge scholarship, the arts, service and engagement to produce long lasting, sustainable... What message is Duke sending when it decided to cut a center created with the same vision it is trying to promote?"

The DCCE was created in 2007 and aims to improve collaborative civic participation in accordance with the university's mission of pursuing "knowledge in the service of society."

The Duke Chronicle reported that the cuts are likely part of campus-wide cuts, but that they may also be due to the center's staff size in relation to the work and programming done by the center. Korstad said he did not know the intentions of those managing the budget in cutting the DCCE's funds. Still, he remained optimistic about the DCCE's future.

He told the Duke Chronicle, "This doesn't represent any kind of diminution of the energy and the work we're going to do."