Utica University moves forward with plan to eliminate majors: What will not be offered

Utica University faculty fighting the proposed sunsetting of 15 majors have saved two of them, but lost their bigger battle.

The Faculty Senate had censured the board of trustees over the process leading to the recommendations. Students, alumni, community members and academic colleagues from other schools joined the faculty in signing an online petition, staging an on-campus rally and submitting written objections to the recommendations during the administration’s public comment period.

But the board voted at their meeting on Feb. 16 and 17 to approve a number of changes recommended by outgoing President Laura Casamento based on a task force report, according to a report put out by the trustees.

What are the outcomes of the Utica University trustees' report

The trustees voted to sunset 13 majors after all current and accepted students in those fields have graduated:

• Criminal justice (online)

• Fraud and financial crime investigation (on campus)

• Geoscience (for a B.A. degree and for a B.S. degree)

• Healthcare management (both online and on campus)

• International studies

• Nutrition

• Philosophy

• Public relations

• Marketing

• Sociology

• Anthropology

• Spanish

• Therapeutic recreation

More:Utica University's proposed elimination of 15 majors sparks backlash: What to know

More:Utica University faculty, students protest administration's proposal to cut 15 majors

Eight majors will be kept, but have their curriculum modified, such as by adding technical writing to the English department, focusing political science more on pre-law students and modernizing technical standards for several majors.

The other majors being modified include: accounting, fraud and financial crime investigation online, health sciences for the online occupational therapy weekend program, history, mathematics and physics for a B.S. degree. Faculty in these departments must submit modification plans by Sept. 1.

The university will also modify the curriculum for the financial crimes investigator certificate program.

Casamento withdrew her recommendation to sunset the physics major for a B.A. degree and the chemistry major, a decision with which the board agreed, based on faculty’s arguments on the impact that cuts would have on other, related programs.

Why the decisions were made

The report said the review of and changes to the university’s academic portfolio were needed because:

• A decline in enrollments and changing enrollment patterns have left the university with an unsustainable faculty-to-student ratio.

• The university relies on tuition so fewer students means fewer resources to support programs.

• The current academic portfolio no longer matches what prospective students are looking for or the skills that employers need.

• The university needs to dedicate its resources to maintain and grow high demand programs.

The task force weighed three measures: how many students applied per program, how many accepted students enrolled per program and how many degrees were awarded to majors in each field. Less popular majors were more likely to be recommended to be eliminated or modified, especially if they fared poorly in two or all three of those areas.

Only six students are majoring in international studies, according to the report, six in therapeutic recreation, three in sociology and anthropology, two in philosophy and one in Spanish.

“The recommendations and decisions made with respect to the academic portfolio review,” Robert Brvenik, chairman of the board of trustees, wrote in a letter introducing the report, “were based on a data-driven analysis of what credentials are appropriate to the mission of one institution, Utica University, as we strive to empower learners to achieve their career and life goals in the context of a rapidly changing economic and social environment.”

How the report was received

The report hasn’t changed the concerns expressed by faculty and others who pointed to a lack of transparency throughout the process.

“It seems there are real financial costs to what they are doing, and it makes me question their financial expertise,” said Leonore Fleming, president of the faculty union, AAUP-Utica, and an associate professor of philosophy, one of the doomed majors. “Just this week I had a student in my office asking me to write a letter of recommendation so they could transfer somewhere else in case their major was cut. Their major has now been cut. Who knows how many other students will follow?”

The report, Fleming said, is not comprehensive. It doesn't provide the hoped-for transparency on the data used in the decision-making process — the union has requested financial information related to the approved program cuts but it has not been provided — and also lacks any comments from students. The trustees, she said, violated proper procedure by voting after the faculty filed a pending grievance.

And the report’s focus on numbers overlooks the reality that student demand is, in part, the outcome of marketing and how the admissions department recruits students, said Luke Perry, professor of political science and director of the Utica University Center of Public Affairs and Election Research. And the department’s resources are not allocated evenly between all the university’s programs, he said.

“As a result, recruiting for some programs starts at third base, for others it starts at home plate, and if you don’t score enough runs, you now get cut,” he said. “This is a huge challenge for majors in social sciences and humanities and will continue to be until Utica’s marketing resources are more equitably distributed.”

This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Utica University cuts majors: What will no longer be offered