Here & Now

UW-SP Eliminates Six Majors

Frederica Freyberg:
Now to higher education and a UW System school that has had to tighten its belt by redesigning its curriculum. Last spring in the face of falling enrollment and an $8 million budget deficit, UW-Stevens Point began working on an academic realignment. This week university officials announced the “Point Forward” plan to address the challenge. The plan tightens the belt even as it nudges liberal arts students toward what the campus calls career-minded majors. The bottom line? The elimination of six degree programs in the humanities: French, German, history, geology, geography and two degree programs within the art department. Additional cost saving will come from cutting six to ten faculty positions. Earlier I spoke with UW-Stevens Point Vice-Chancellor and Provost Greg Summers. Thanks very much for joining us.

Greg Summers:
Happy to be here.

Frederica Freyberg:
Describe, please, the cuts that UW-Stevens Point is making.

Greg Summers:
Well, we’ve talked before Frederica about the fact that we have a budget deficit and certainly the proposal that we circulated to campus this week was meant to address that at least in part. But it’s also the case that we’re thinking about a lot more than just budget. What this is really about is trying to respond to the changing education need that we’re seeing in Wisconsin. We know that students are really cost-sensitive these days and so they’re focused, sort of laser focused on the career pathways that their degree choice can open up. So our restructuring that we’re proposing: reorganizing our academic colleges and focusing our curriculum is really meant to highlight those career paths. We know that employers are no longer content to choose between graduates that have a liberal education or graduates that have professional training. They want both. They need both. So we’re working hard to integrate those things. We’re redesigning our core curriculum and emphasizing critical thinking. And lastly, we know that the number of high school graduates in Wisconsin is declining, so we’re working hard to address adult student populations in the region.

Frederica Freyberg:
Will the cuts then balance the budget?

Greg Summers:
In the end, that’s where we’re going. We’re certainly working toward a balanced budget plan. We know we have a strategic — structural deficit and we’re working on a three-year plan to balance that.

Frederica Freyberg:
Is this really kind of a wholesale realignment of your university campus offerings?

Greg Summers:
I think before we’re done in the next five years, you’re going to see a pretty wholesale rethinking of our curriculum and our approach to region, absolutely.

Frederica Freyberg:
It almost sounds like a mix, a hybrid between usual four-year university offerings and technical colleges.

Greg Summers:
Well, you know, we’ve gotten a lot of criticism for becoming a technical college in recent months. That’s just not the case. Technical colleges do a great job of graduating students who are looking for a vocation, looking for a job. What we’re doing is preparing students for careers. What careers means is — it’s everything that’s inherent in a liberal education. It means life-long learning. It means the ability to innovate, to adapt and to change as the needs of an employer or the needs of a career, the needs of their communities change. So we see this as absolutely part and parcel with the mission of the university and I mean that university with a capital u.

Frederica Freyberg:
What do you say to concerns that cutting particular majors in foreign language, history and art are an assault on the humanities?

Greg Summers:
I don’t see it that way. I’m an historian myself. I think we have to think long and hard about the purpose of the humanities in the system of higher education. What I would ask students who are interested in these programs is what outcome they want to achieve. In 99.9% of the cases, we’re going to be able to help students reach their goals to obtain the outcomes they’re hoping to achieve through a higher education.

Frederica Freyberg:
Youre also adding some centers. What are those and why are they being added?

Greg Summers:
Were adding two centers to our university college. One is what we’re going to call the Institute for the Wisconsin Idea. And that’s really going to be the home for liberal arts education at Stevens Point. One of the things that I think is true about universities in general is we tend to make the general education curricula that we offer our students, which are one-third of the credits in a 120 credit degree, we tend to make those credits an afterthought. The majors tend to come first. The academic programs come first, which is understandable. But gen ed, the liberal arts core curriculum tends to be a second or third priority of the campus. We’re going to reverse that. We’re going to make the liberal arts core curriculum the first priority for our students because, as I said, employers want graduates that have that liberal arts background and professional skills. And we’re going to make sure that we integrate those. The other center that you alluded to is called the Center for Critical Thinking. Universities will say all the time that we teach critical thinking and we certainly do. But there is no consistent definition in higher education from one discipline, one department to another about what critical thinking means. We’ve had a faculty member leading a curricular reform project here on campus for two years that’s involved more than 70 faculty from cross disciplines learning how to teach critical thinking consistently and more important, how to make sure our students are learning those skills. We’re going to teach critical thinking better than any university, not just in the state but in the country before we’re done.

Frederica Freyberg:
Is UW-Stevens Point expected to be a model for other campuses across the state?

Greg Summers:
Were thinking about our students and our region. If what we’re doing becomes a model for the rest of higher ed, that’s okay with us. I hope it does.

Frederica Freyberg:
And yet how difficult is it to have to eliminate some of these majors and also the staff layoffs?

Greg Summers:
Oh, I think of course it’s difficult. I am an historian, as I mentioned, and to propose the elimination of a history major is difficult. For me personally, as well as for the campus, it’s always difficult to go through a spending reduction exercise. But we’re also excited about the direction we can take. As an historian, I can tell you I am as committed as anybody to making the liberal arts the central thing we do well and particularly to make sure it’s integrated with our professional programs so that it serves our students well and the region well.

Frederica Freyberg:
Is this the beginning of cuts or the end?

Greg Summers:
Weve been talking about our financial issues for a period of years, so I hope we’re coming to the end of this process. But it’s certainly going to — the process will continue in the coming weeks and months ahead for us.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. Provost Greg Summers, thanks very much for joining us.

Greg Summers:
Thanks for having me, Frederica.