Iowa's universities not alone in considering cuts

IOWA CITY - The University of Iowa has plenty of company in contemplating the future of its graduate programs.

Universities across the country are conducting similar assessments, driven in some cases by hefty budget cuts and in others by a desire to boost strong programs and cut loose weaker ones.

A UI task force on graduate education is expected to release a report Monday, after reviewing 108 programs that stirred faculty concern about what evaluation criteria was used and the possibility that numerous low-ranked programs may be eliminated.

The other universities studying graduate programs have made cuts. It's painful, but hopefully other programs get strengthened as a result, said Patrick Osmer, dean of Ohio State University's graduate school, which has shifted funding for graduate programs in recent years.

“Our whole process was intended to be constructive, not punitive,” Osmer said. “Of course people were concerned, but in the end I'm very pleased with the outcome, and we're seeing already positive results.”

Keeping faculty, staff and students involved is important during such a tough decision, faculty and administrators at universities undergoing similar restructuring said in interviews. So is making clear how decisions are reached, they said.

Ohio State began reviewing its 92 doctoral programs in 2006, with a final report in 2008. The university tagged five small departments for withdrawal of university funding, and another 29 were told to restructure. Others were deemed high quality and got thousands of additional dollars for graduate stipends,

which boosted recruiting and enrollment, Osmer said.

Ohio State officials looked at data - time to degree, stipends, job placement outcomes - but also considered quality, he said.

Deciding what data to use in such assessments can be tricky, Wanda Howell, faculty chairwoman at the University of Arizona, said. Judging quality is more subjective - and can vary widely between the humanities and the sciences - than ranking a program by hard data, she said.

Arizona officials have spent years on a transformation plan to save millions and improve quality. The plan will consolidate and realign colleges and departments and eliminate more than 20 programs identified as low degree producing. The first program cuts were made in a straightforward way, based on production of graduates, Howell said. Future cuts will be decided by quality, a much slower proposition, she said.

“That's what we've, frankly, wrestled with for a year and a half, trying to define what units need to demonstrate to be considered successful,” she said.

Michigan State University officials are mulling recommendations to reorganize and merge departments and discontinue nearly 20 doctoral and master's programs and at least 20 undergraduate majors. The Nevada university system is considering closing two colleges, a law school and the schools of medicine and dentistry at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

“Almost every university is doing these kinds of changes for increased cost-savings and targeted quality,” UI Provost Wallace Loh wrote in an e-mail. “We have to live within our means, and we also have an opportunity to increase institutional quality by focusing on our strengths or emerging strengths.”

The UI process will allow plenty of time for more input, Loh has assured faculty. Recommendations likely will go to the state Board of Regents in September. But Loh stresses changes must happen to prepare for a future with less state funding.

Program reviews also are happening at Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa.

UNI officials will merge two colleges and cut an administrative unit. Two UNI task forces have spent more than a year assessing academic programs. Some will be cut, though officials have yet to say which programs or how many.

At ISU, the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences launched a restructuring to make some departments more research intensive and others more teaching intensive. It could result in program eliminations, Dean Michael Whiteford said. ISU leaders also will soon assess all graduate programs.

The discussion has caused some uneasiness, but many faculty realize changes are necessary.

“I think my colleagues understand this really is a financial crisis we're having to wrestle with, and we can't do all of the things we used to do and we can't do all of the things we would like to do, so we have to prioritize,” he said.