Regents universities across the state are looking at their majors with small enrollments.
Emporia State University has been asked to present its data on over 10 programs — as well as recommendations — at the Board of Regents’ February meeting. Provost David Cordle says every university has programs with small enrollments. The goal of Emporia State’s ongoing review is to see if those programs are productive enough to continue, and he says an argument can be made with most of the programs to keep them. He says administrators have to go beyond the raw data before making a recommendation.
Last summer, ESU recommended discontinuing its Master of Science in Rehabilitation Counseling due to limited student demand and the need for other resources to meet accreditation standards. The plan last summer was to add an emphasis to the established Masters of Science in Clinical Counseling. Also, the Masters of Science in Industrial and Organizational Psychology would be discontinued for now but could be revived as an online program.
University spokesperson Gwen Larson says the university offers courses to support multiple majors, setting the stage to “maximize course value while offering the widest variety of majors.” Larson also says eliminating the low-enrollment programs would not save money for ESU in most cases.
In the meantime, ESU is adding majors in other areas. Just this week, Emporia State announced a Master of Science in Nursing.
ESU programs below the Kansas Board of Regents enrollment threshold
*Business and Innovation/Entrepreneurship Teacher Education
*Health Teacher Education
*Foreign Languages and Literatures, general
*Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
*Physical Sciences, general
*Chemistry, general
*Geology/Earth Science, general
*Physics, general
*Econometrics and Quantitative Economics
*Political Science and Government, general
*Drama and Dramatics/Theatre Arts, general
*History, general
