Louisiana Eliminates More Than 100 Degree Programs
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Posted By: Hija Chang on April 28, 2011 FEATURED Content By Jordan Blum More than 100 academic degree programs will be eliminated statewide for not graduating enough students, the Louisiana Board of Regents decided Wednesday. Nearly 200 more academic programs will be consolidated or shaped into new programs, under the plan approved by the board that sets policy for the state’s public colleges and universities. Southern University has the most degree programs being directly terminated, with 13 degrees lost, including its Spanish and French bachelor’s degrees, the Regents determined. Alongside other cuts at Grambling State University, no public historically black college in the state will offer a bachelor’s degree in a foreign language once the programs are phased out. That adds to other statewide reductions in foreign language degree offerings the past two years. “The consequences are dire,” said Southern foreign languages professor Thomas Miller, who unsuccessfully argued, “We are in the process of turning the program around.” The program eliminations are the result of a low-completer review program that began in January of nearly 460 degree programs statewide. The axed programs will remain in place temporarily to allow upperclassmen to graduate. State Commissioner of Higher Education Jim Purcell said it is vital for a college to have foreign language offerings, “but not necessarily in a major.” “It was a tough thing … and that is difficult,” Purcell said of the program terminations. Many of the programs cut include specialized teacher education programs that will be done away with or become concentrations within broader education programs. Purcell said the next step is examining duplicative academic programs on a geographic, regional basis statewide. The cuts approved Wednesday include: •109 direct terminations. •189 consolidations and terminations into either new degree programs or as concentrations within existing majors. •107 programs conditionally maintained under a pseudo-probationary status. •51 programs fully maintained. Academic programs were flagged by the Regents as low-completers, if they averaged fewer than eight bachelor’s degree graduates the past three years, five master’s degree graduates or three doctoral graduates. : 2000 characters left Ted Michael Morgan: This is an illusion of efficiency. I understand some of the cuts but languages are vital. What's this? Posted on Apr 28, 2011 at 12:24 AM TCB: Quality instead of quantity. Wise moves by the Board of Regents. This is good for the students, and good for the state. Keep going! All this means if that a student wants to major in Spanish, he has to attend LSU instead of Southern. What's this? Posted on Apr 28, 2011 at 6:45 AM ag2400: There's no money - they have to cut somewhere. It is ridiculous for inter-system schools such as Southern and LSU to be so geographically close and offer the exact same courses. What's this? Posted on Apr 28, 2011 at 7:14 AM Leila: Only a clueless uneducated dummy would support such insane cuts. Our state and the future of our children are going down the drain and some still applaud unwise decisions like these ones... We live in a "global world", but oh, wait... everyone in the world speaks English, so no need to worry about not teaching our children those other languages!... When will the people in our state wake up and elect true educated leaders who really care about Louisianians and stop voting for the same "crabload" of corrupted pseudo-politicians? to some specialized classes required for a degree with few students enrolled. We also cannot afford to have degree programs that offer very little employment potential and the students cannot afford to run up massive student loan debts to complete those degree programs but that is an argument for another day. Full Story: http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/Regents-c... If you enjoyed this article, Join HBCU CONNECT today for similar content and opportunities via email! |
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Hija Chang
Management, See Moss Interactive Central State University class of 2021 Member Since January 2011 |
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