Across seven out of Marquette’s 11 colleges, 15 programs were recommended by the Marquette 2031: Securing Our Future steering committee to be cut or modified due to low enrollment trends.
The recommended programs have not been released to the Wire at this time, as the process for review is ongoing.
What to know right now:
Kevin Conway, university spokesperson, said the programs, if cut or modified, will instill a “teach-out plan,” so students who are currently enrolled in the program are offered the classes they need to finish their degree.
“The majority of the 15 programs recommended for modification or closure have enrolled 10 or fewer students per year over the last five years,” Conway said in a statement. “This evaluation is about how to best utilize resources to serve as many students as we can.”
Announced last academic year, the Securing Our Future plan aims to reduce Marquette’s spending by $31 million by 2031 and reinvest 40% back into the university.
The Securing Our Future steering committee is comprised of 26 faculty members and co-chaired by Jill Guttormson, dean of the College of Nursing, and Ralph Weber, vice president and general counsel.
The committee went to the deans of each college to ask for potential ways to reduce the $31 million goal set by the board of trustees.
Paul Gasser, chair of University Academic Senate, said the deans could submit ideas for increases in revenue and/or budget cuts.
“However, the steering committee was ‘skeptical’ of ideas for increased revenue,” Gasser said. “They were more open to budget cuts than to ideas for increased revenue because they didn’t want to rely on increases in revenue that might not pan out.”
Gasser said if deans submitted lists of mostly or all ideas for increased revenue, they were told to resubmit a list of more budget cuts.
What’s next in the process:
After the 15 programs were identified, faculty from each of the 15 departments could submit feedback with their opinions and thoughts on the potential cuts through CourseLeaf, a curriculum management software.
That feedback is sent to the University Board of Undergraduate Studies and University Board of Graduate Studies, where the program review process is happening right now. The board will vote on the proposal for each program, then if passed, it will move to UAS.
UAS consists of 38 members, including faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students, and acts as an advisory body for the university leadership. According to the faculty handbook, they are given the proposals, and in this case, can vote on them.
Gasser said at the Jan. 27 UAS meeting that materials about the proposal will be given to senators with time to review before the meeting. At that meeting, UBUS and UBGS chairs will present the process that identified the program for closure, rationale for closure, data collected to evaluate the closure and a summary of the committee’s discussions.
UAS senators will be given time to discuss and deliberate how they want to vote over the next few UAS meetings.
The outcome of the votes from UBUS, UBGS and UAS are sent to the provost’s office next. Acting Provost Sarah Feldner, University President Kimo Ah Yun and the Board of Trustees make the final decision.
Gasser said there is not a hard deadline for when a decision has to be made, but the deadline for changes in the class bulletin is in April.
This is not the first time Marquette has made cuts in the past five years. In the spring of 2021, Marquette laid of 39 staff members in response to a drop in enrollment due to COVID-19.
This story was written by Sophia Tiedge. She can be reached at [email protected]
