The first stage of MU’s academic program review has ended, with the university releasing a final report on Jan. 25. This report details recommendations made by the Task Force on Academic Program Analysis, Enhancement, and Opportunities. Its review is part of an attempt to identify areas of inefficiency in MU’s programs and strategically plan ways to correct them.
“[During the review], there were three main goals,” said Matthew Martens, faculty fellow in the Office of the Provost and co-chair of the task force. “[These were] to make recommendations for programs to inactivate that we couldn’t support anymore as an institution, make recommendations for programs where there might be opportunities to combine or consolidate and then to think about various areas of investment for programs.”
The task force was established by former Provost Garnett Stokes. Fifteen members from different departments met over the span of 6 1/2 months to deliberate each program as an individual unit.
“These were hard recommendations to make,” Martens said. “There are people doing good work in all these programs that were recommended for inactivation. I think that going forward, it’s a way to help the university think about what should its strategic initiatives be going forward. Where are areas we can grow? Where are areas that we can potentially be very good at?”
These recommendations were not solely budget-based. Some factors included in the deliberations were time to degree, number of applicants, research productivity and number of graduates to faculty, said Cooper Drury, associate dean of the College of Arts and Science and co-chair of the task force.
The final report suggested that 12 doctoral programs, nine master’s programs, five graduate certificate programs and one doctoral emphasis area be deactivated due to low enrollment.
“At no point did we think the negative consequences outweigh the need to move forward,” Drury said. “This is what made it such a difficult task: We know there will be negative impacts from this. The task force felt these were outweighed by doing nothing.”
Other programs were recommended for further review on account of program limitations. Multiple departments were opted to combine with others to increase productivity as well. For example, the task force recommended combining the German and Russian Studies departments and Romance Languages department into a consolidated languages, literatures and cultures department.
Though this report spells change for the university, the recommendations are not final. The task force sent its recommendations to the provost in January.
“The chancellor has made it clear: This is just the first stage of this process,” Martens said. “Our group came up with its recommendations, but there’s much more work to be done in terms of thinking about what are the next steps — one, in terms of enacting decisions about these programs, and two, using some of this information to think about the next steps for the university in general.”
The second stage of this process will occur in the following months. Administrators and faculty will work together to review their academic programs, according to a press release from the MU News Bureau.
Factors such as administrative costs and undergraduate impact campuswide will be taken into account. Recommendations and decisions to deactivate during stage two will occur throughout the spring 2018 semester.
_Edited by Stephi Smith | ssmith@themaneater.com_