The University of Connecticut Provost’s office is evaluating at least 245 programs which are at risk of being cut, including 70 undergraduate majors, 72 master’s degree programs, 76 graduate certificate programs and 27 doctoral programs.
UConn shared documents accessible to anyone with a UConn Net ID relating to the provost’s evaluation in a statement shared with all faculty members on Friday.
According to a university document regarding evaluation of programs, all low-completion programs will be evaluated.
Low-completion programs are defined as those at or below a certain threshold over the five-year period between August 2018 and May 2023. The thresholds are as follows: 100 undergraduate majors, 50 master’s degrees, 25 graduate certificates and 10 doctoral degrees.
The document says that undergraduate minors and post-baccalaureate certificates are not currently being reviewed.
UConn President Radenka Maric and Provost Anne D’Alleva sent a statement to all faculty on Friday outlining what evaluation could look like.
“This may include continuing the program as it is; making changes to the program such as curricular updates or consolidating it with others to increase its appeal to students; continuing the program with a strategic plan designed to increase levels of enrollment; or the closure of the program,” the statement says.
The 70 undergraduate majors at risk include 26 majors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, 16 majors in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, 15 majors in the Neag School of Education, eight majors in the School of Fine Arts, two majors in the School of Engineering, two majors in the School of Business and one major in the School of Social Work, according to university documents.
A memo from the Office of the Provost sent on May 14 to all academic deans at UConn gives a timeline.
“By November 1, 2024, each school or college must provide a summary report of planned program closures,” the memo says. “This will consist of a summary memo of why a closure decision was taken for each program and the evaluation reports attached.”
Evaluation reports are required for all programs below the low-completion program threshold, excluding programs that plan to shut down.
The provost will report college closure decisions to the Board of Trustees at their meeting on Dec. 11.
“By working through the evaluation, programs will have the opportunity to share whatever information is relevant to help understand why they should be continued,” the document says.
Maric and D’Alleva mentioned UConn’s budget, which is being cut by 15% over the next five years, in a statement.
“Given the budget situation of the university, evaluation of low-enrollment/completion programs is essential to ensure that we maintain the right balance of programs to support our institutional mission, standards of accreditation, and to meet the needs of our students, in addition to being common sense academic ‘housekeeping’ the university should engage in on a regular basis,” the statement said.
Languages, Cultures and Literature
The Languages, Cultures and Literature (LCL) department met on Wednesday to discuss cutting all individual majors within the department, according to Spanish professor Rosa Helena Chinchilla. The decision at the meeting was postponed.
The meeting was announced by LCL Department Head Jennifer Terni in a statement sent out to all LCL faculty. Faculty participated in a poll ahead of the meeting.
Terni said that the LCL’s executive committee, consisting of all eight LCL department heads, agreed that there were three options: creating a single major in LCL; proposing two majors, one in LCL and one in Spanish; or keeping all majors and having all sections except Spanish going through a review process. Terni says that this would include a provision to only have one major if the two-major solution did not get enough votes, or if the provost rejects it.
Spanish is above the threshold for consideration, meaning that the university documents suggest that it should not be evaluated, or be at risk of elimination. However, an email from Associate Dean Evelyn Tribble to Terni suggests that the Office of the Provost would be opposed to keeping Spanish as an individual major.
“We have suggested that one way forward might be to consolidate the major, as we discussed and to convert majors to concentrations,” Tribble said. “Whether all become concentrations, or some become minors, is up to you. Similarly, the question of the status of Spanish should be a departmental decision. As I mentioned, Dean Harel did not think the Provost’s office would support separating Spanish from the rest of LCL.”
Chinchilla said if faculty did not agree to becoming one department with one major, there was a risk that they would not have new hires for professors who leave, which would destroy programs. She explained what happened in the meeting.
“Chris Vials from the [AAUP] came and he told us that 70 other programs or units are in the same boat as we are and he wanted us to know that because he said that professors can’t just be fired,” Chinchilla said. “There’s a process in our union contract and that […] we shouldn’t be worried about that.”
Chinchilla said that Vials told faculty that a program could be made smaller and that they would have to vote. However, a decision was made to postpone the vote.
“I mean, according to the straw poll [which was taken to find LCL faculty preferences for how to proceed], we were evenly divided, but I think we’re more than evenly divided,” Chinchilla said. “I think a lot of people feel that they don’t want to give up their major.”
Chinchilla said that she asked her students on Thursday how they would feel if their transcripts stated their majors as Languages, Cultures and Literature.
“They said that would be terrible,” Chinchilla said. “They said that for that they felt it would harm them in finding job prospects.”
According to Chinchilla, other majors above the threshold are at risk, including Spanish and Human Rights.
“But the problem for us and the Institutes […] is that they’re trying to make one department of social inquiry and that’s where human rights and all those things would go,” Chinchilla said.
UConn Spokesperson Stephanie Reitz did not immediately respond to a question regarding potential cuts to majors not considered to be low-enrollment.
“The problem right now is that the university system, especially in the state of Connecticut, was built so well and so carefully and so much public money has gone into it,” Chinchilla said. “We went from a Research 2 to a Research 1 university in the time I’ve been here. It seems to me that the administration is putting the Research 1 in peril.”
Chinchilla said that R1 university status has to do with many factors, including courses taught and student-to-teacher ratio.
“Even though humanities classes may not be 100 students in every class, I have had so many students say to me, ‘I’m so happy I was a Biology and Spanish major, because at least in my Spanish major classes, I had the opportunity to discuss and to talk and to participate,’” Chinchilla said. “Because in most of their biology classes they were generally one of 200 students, so there was no participation and no exchange.”
Maric and D’Alleva denied that humanities were being targeted in the statement.
“This process does not target any particular disciplinary field and makes no assumptions about the programs. There is a narrative taking hold that the humanities are being targeted at UConn,” the statement says. “Nothing could be further from the truth. We want to have vibrant humanities at UConn – this is essential to our mission as a flagship and Land Grant institution.”
The statement continues “at the same time, the national and global landscape for the study of the humanities and other disciplines is changing, and we need to understand and respond to those changes, including the movement of students both toward and away from the ways these programs have been structured and offered.”
University guidelines for cutting courses
According to a document on the evaluation of courses, the Guideline for Archiving/Suspending, Closing/Terminating, or Reactivating Academic Courses or Programs should be followed when a decision is made to close a major.
“Periodic evaluation and, where appropriate, suspension or closure of outdated or low-demand courses and programs is vital for the successful academic operations of the University,” the guideline says.
The guideline states low enrollment, financial considerations and faculty availability as reasons for eliminating a program. It provides instructions for developing a plan for the closure of courses, or a “teach-out plan.”
“The University is committed to supporting enrolled students in successfully completing the program in which they initially enrolled,” the document says. “In cases where a program is offered at a specific location through a particular modality that is slated for discontinuation, the University has a responsibility to ensure that currently enrolled students can finish their studies in the same location or modality as initially enrolled.”
The document outlines the importance of student input regarding program closures.
“When formulating plans for the suspension or closure/termination of a program, extensive dialogue with current students is imperative,” the document says. “This engagement allows for a comprehensive understanding of student preferences regarding potential alternatives.”
Reitz did not comment on if or how student voices would be involved in decisions to cut courses. No documents in the folder titled “Fall 2024-low completion program evaluation” say if or how student voices would be included in the process.
The document lays out guidelines for supporting students enrolled in programs that will be cut.
“Students committed to completing the program should receive unwavering support through course provisions, advising, and essential services,” the document says. “Departments are expected to maintain the teaching of required courses or, when necessary, make reasonable adjustments to meet students’ completion needs.”
The document states that faculty may need to modify program requisites and that alterations to curriculum may require approval “from the relevant University Senate [Curricula and Courses Standing Committee] or Graduate School Executive committees.”
According to the document, prospective students for courses that are cut “should be promptly notified about the program’s status and guided regarding alternative choices, where applicable.”
The document also lays out guidelines to assist stopped-out students, meaning students who started but did not complete their degree.
“The teach-out plan should outline the support measures for stopped-out students to either finalize their program or explore suitable alternative academic pathways, such as different major, degree, or certificate,” the document states.
Higher Education Sustainability Advisory Board
An email from Tribble suggests that this may have been a legislative decision.
“This is a Provost-level initiative, spurred by a legislative oversight committee,” Tribble said. “The Board of Trustees has required a full report from the University by the December meeting.”
The statement from Maric and D‘Alleva indicates that Tribble was referring to the Higher Education Sustainability Advisory Board. The board was created in a law passed on May 30, after the provost’s memo on potential cuts to courses was sent.
Sec. 107. of PA 24-81, which details the creation of the board, also outlines requests for information, including detailed financial reports and enrollment data and “any other financial, operational, performance or other outcome information, metrics or data requested by the board” from all public universities within the state.
“The board may require a public institution of higher education to submit the information set forth in subsection (f) of this section on a disaggregated basis,” the act states.
This suggests that the board could ask UConn for enrollment data broken down by major. Data requests were sent prior to the board’s first meeting on Aug. 27 to UConn President Radenka Maric, UConn Health CEO Andrew Agwunobi and Chancellor for CT State Colleges and Universities Terrence Cheng, according to a letter from the board.
The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems gave a presentation to the Board on Sept. 9, detailing declining enrollment at public universities across the state.
A presentation lists their assignments, one of which was to “make recommendations and plans aimed at improving [Connecticut State Colleges and Universities] financial sustainability while boosting student outcomes and addressing workforce needs.”
A statement from Maric and D’Alleva suggests that this will impact other public universities in Connecticut as well.
“This process is ongoing and is expected to result in the advisory board producing recommendations for Connecticut public institutions of higher education down the road,” the statement said.
It is currently unclear whether other public universities will face similar cuts to majors. A spokesperson for the CSCU did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Diminuendo accelarando