Utica University has come up with a plan to deal with the changing world of higher education that will involve eliminating programs with low enrollment, along with faculty layoffs.
The university was founded 79 years ago to ease World War II vets into the workforce. But times have changed, and University President Todd Pfannestiel says Utica doesn’t want to join other schools that haven’t been able to keep up with the shrinking number of college-aged students and rapidly shifting workforce needs.
“I could list you 200 institutions that since January have announced cuts in staffing, cuts in faculty, cuts in programs,” said Pfannestiel. “Those who face it head-on will emerge through the challenge stronger for sure. Those who put their heads in the sand sadly may go the route of some of the other institutions in the area that sadly have closed.”
So the university has come up with a restructuring plan that starts with a hard look at just who is attending the four-year school.
“95% of our students are enrolling in degree programs that, if you look at the list, seem to be more focused in careers and professions as opposed to what we often call traditional liberal arts,” Pfannestiel said.
Those 20 programs include things like healthcare, cybersecurity, criminal justice, and several STEM and professional careers. Pfannestiel said that means phasing out some of the more unpopular majors.
"We go at this not with any preconception on a number of programs, but certainly when I look at all of our degrees that we offer and I look at the degrees in which students are enrolling, I find it highly likely that there will be some degree programs that as we finish our process would be identified for elimination,” he said.
While it is likely that some majors will be eliminated, it won’t be right away.
“When we do make the decision to eliminate a major, we do stop enrolling new students in that major so that we can have an end date in mind, whether it's three years down the road, two years down the road, of when we no longer are technically offering the major,” said Pfannestiel.
In order to reduce a deficit, the school will also be cutting $5 million out of the faculty budget. Pfannestiel said the current faculty roster is meant to handle 5,100 students. University enrollment right now is approximately 3,600, with a goal of boosting it to 4,000 through a new emphasis on certain degrees.
