Drake University trustees to vote on academic program eliminations

As Drake University prepares to eliminate academic programs and faculty lines in hopes of balancing its budget, votes from faculty representatives have possibly narrowed the field of what can be on the chopping block.

The university Board of Trustees meets this week to vote on proposed program cuts. Drake University Provost Sue Mattison announced in early March that programs encompassing 4% of the university’s student body were recommended for elimination based on a program review launched in November.

These eliminations, alongside the discontinuance of faculty lines, elimination of other positions and a curriculum review, are part of cost-cutting measures across the university. The changes are expected to save more than $14 million over fiscal years 2025 and 2026 to fix a budget deficit.

After the programs up for elimination were announced, faculty had until April 1 to provide evidence to show keeping their program or faculty line would benefit the university more than getting rid of it. Mattison, faculty senate deans and committees reviewed the appeals before the recommendations went to a faculty senate vote April 17.

The majority of the university’s faculty senate voted against motions to eliminate some of the programs up for discontinuance, university spokesperson Ashton Hockman said in an email, including undergraduate majors in physics and astronomy and the rhetoric major and minor. Motions to eliminate the masters of accountancy and public administration were also struck down.

The faculty senate voted to eliminate the religion major, East Asian Studies minor and Evidence-Based Health Care certificate. Some programs have been removed from consideration, including the anthropology major and minor, sociology major, health care administration major and religion minor.

The next step in the process is for Drake President Marty Martin to bring these recommendations to the Board of Trustees meeting taking place this week, Hockman said in the email. Once the board has reviewed and decided whether to approve the recommendations, Martin will share an update with campus April 29.

University charter requires Faculty Senate agreement

Drake University’s academic charter states that “degree programs may be terminated … by the concurrent agreement of the Faculty Senate, President of the University and the Board of Trustees.”

When asked whether there are talks to suspend the charter in order to move ahead with eliminating all the programs regardless of the faculty senate vote and if certain programs are now safe in the wake of it, Hockman said she cannot guess what will be discussed at the board meeting.

“The President and the board have a responsibility to evaluate all paths forward to a balanced budget, but we can’t speculate on what decisions will be made,” Hockman said in the email.

A document provided to Drake faculty and staff by Mattison and obtained by Iowa Capital Dispatch lists the programs recommended for elimination and provides rationale supporting these choices. Each of the programs approved for elimination by the faculty senate have less than 10 students enrolled.

Seven graduate students are seeking a Evidence-Based Health Care certificate while pursuing a master’s degree, the rationale stated, and doing away with the program will free up manpower and financial resources totaling $5,400.

Eliminating the religion major, which the rationale stated four students are enrolled in, would save the university quite a bit more. Getting rid of one of the two faculty lines in the program and rehoming the faculty member into the Law, Politics, and Society major alongside other savings from eliminating the religion program would save the university around $125,000.

The East Asian Studies minor houses just three students, according to the rationale, and certain classes required for the minor are not offered at the university, including history courses and Chinese and Korean language classes. The projected savings from doing away with the program are not stated in the document.

Of all the programs the faculty senate voted against eliminating, the master of public administration would potentially save the university the most money — more than $900,000, according to the rationale. More than half of those funds would come from the salary and benefits of one tenured and two continuous-term faculty lines, and the rest would be the minimum amount saved from other expenses in the program.

Eliminating the physics and astronomy majors would save the university more than $500,000, according to the rationale, with almost $225,000 coming from salary and benefit savings from two tenured faculty spots.

Dropping the rhetoric major and minor would save the university a minimum of $165,000, the document stated, and eliminating the master of accountancy program would save at least $30,000.

Enrollment, graduation and retention trends played a large role in the rationale for discontinuing these programs. Most of the programs up for elimination have shrinking or already small enrollment numbers, and areas of study like physics and astronomy are recorded to have low graduation rates. The number of student credit hours and majors in the masters of public administration and accountancy have also dropped considerably over the years, the document stated.

If these programs are eliminated, university staff and leaders have stated there will be paths forward for enrolled students in order to finish their studies without issue.

“Note that if any programs are ultimately eliminated, students enrolled in those programs will have a teach-out plan, meaning they will be able to complete their degree on time and without delay,” Hockman said via email.