Ohio University's executive vice president and provost will present results from an Ad Hoc committee charged with looking at OU's program elimination procedures at Faculty Senate tonight.
Provost Pam Benoit asked a group of five faculty members to recommend how colleges should identify and remove inactive major codes and the best way to proceed if the university reaches a point where budget circumstances force administration to discontinue programs.
The committee recommended using procedures already outlined in the Faculty Handbook, according to Joe McLaughlin, a member of the committee, and Ann Fidler, interim associate provost for strategic initiatives.
We have let the provost know what we've been talking about and that we're going to follow the handbook and she seems to be in agreement with that
said McLaughlin, who is also chairman of Faculty Senate.
The handbook outlines several circumstances under which programs can be eliminated: financial exigency, imminent financial crisis that threatens the survival of the institution and educational reasons, including lack of continuing need for the program or a lack of educational quality.
OU is not considering the emergency elimination options at this point, Fidler said in an e-mail.
We aren't in a state where we would be declaring a financial crisis as described in the Faculty Handbook she wrote. ... if it becomes
necessary to consider the phasing out of programs
it will be done in accordance with the 'non-emergency' provisions in the Faculty Handbook.
To eliminate a program for educational reasons, a curriculum council at the college level must make a recommendation to the dean, who would then make a recommendation to the University Curriculum Committee. If it's a graduate program, the Graduate Council also weighs in. UCC would make the final recommendation on whether to eliminate the program.
The provost's committee did not review programs or make a list of programs that could potentially be eliminated. It dealt only with the review process and clarifying handbook language, McLaughlin said.
Benoit has also been pushing colleges to eliminate unused major codes. That is not the same as eliminating programs - many programs actually have several major codes for a more specialized-sounding degree. Colleges have submitted around 150 major codes for elimination and UCC will discuss those at its meeting this week.
Benoit will report to Faculty Senate tonight on what the committee recommended, as well as the status of the major code review.
Senate will also be taking up resolutions tonight to set forth its priorities for this year. Those include a first reading of a resolution on university budget priorities that calls for academic expenditures not to be reduced to make up for OU's deficit.
eg349206@ohiou.edu
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Emily Grannis
