The Board of Regents unanimously approved the Academic Program Review results determined by the Regents’ Academic and Student Affairs Committee on Wednesday, with a recommendation to terminate 109 programs statewide.
The staff recommendation, which reviewed 456 state education programs identified for low graduation and retention rates, determined 109 programs will be terminated, 107 programs will be conditionally maintained, 51 programs will remain untouched and 189 programs will be consolidated with 172 canceled within the school’s curriculum.
Of the University’s 31 programs under review, four will be terminated entirely and three will be consolidated.
The terminated programs include the master’s degree program in geography, the bachelor’s degree in Latin, the bachelor’s degree in German and the master’s degree in educational technology and leadership.
The University is projected to save about $357,800 by terminating Latin and about $143,000 for German, according to the Regents’ report.
The three programs to be consolidated are the master’s degree programs in agronomy and forestry, and the bachelor’s degree in women’s and gender studies.
The consolidated programs will be changed to become a concentration in an existing major or will be combined with other majors to become a degree program, according to the staff report. University programs will be removed from the catalog.
Karen Denby, Regents associate commissioner for Academic Affairs, said students currently enrolled in these programs will have the opportunity either to complete the course in an appropriate amount of time or transfer to a new curriculum.
After presenting the review in the committee meeting, Denby noted several trends the staff observed during the study. One of the factors Denby pointed out was the decreasing completer rates in the state’s foreign language programs.
Thomas Miller, vice president of the Southern University Faculty Senate, said in a public comment that the termination of Southern’s Spanish and French degree programs would have “severe consequences.”
Miller said if the language programs are eliminated, there will be no historically black college or universities that offer foreign language in the state, as Southern is the last.
“We aren’t asking for a chance to turn the program around,” he said. “We are in the process of turning it around already.”
Miller explained the number of students enrolled in the programs has increased, graduation rates are anticipated to rise and Southern is working closely with local public schools to ensure foreign language remains a priority.
He stressed the importance of graduating students in foreign languages so they may return to the public school system to educate the next generation.
“One of the main obstacles is the fact that many African American students, most in fact, are coming in without meeting the core language requirement,” he explained. “The situation is common in public schools — there are no foreign language teachers available.”
Board Member Joseph Wiley countered Miller’s argument.
“If [the degree] isn’t producing graduates, it’s not very compelling,” Wiley said.
Wiley said the bigger issue will be getting more minority students to enroll and complete the programs.
“The students will still have access to the language classes,” Denby assured. “They just won’t be graduating in it.”
Board Member Chris Gorman questioned what the various consolidations would accomplish, and Denby replied, “It’s more of an efficiency thing than about savings.”
Denby said the next step in the program evaluation is to conduct a review of programs that may be “unnecessarily duplicated.”
Commissioner of Higher Education Jim Purcell commented on the review during the regular Board meeting, saying “higher education has to morph over time.”
 
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Contact Sydni Dunn at [email protected]