Trends in higher education enrollment and Ohio's Senate Bill 1 are changing what degree programs will be available to students across the state.
Many of Ohio's public universities, including the state's largest, Ohio State, announced plans this year to end certain programs to comply with the new law. Also known as the "Advance Ohio Higher Education Act," Senate Bill 1 requires schools to end undergraduate degree programs that award fewer than five degrees annually over three years.
The University of Cincinnati has announced its intention to discontinue several programs across its main and regional campuses. In a recent campus update, UC's Office of the Provost announced the university will sunset its bachelor's of music composition degree and associate's degrees at its Blue Ash campus for public health and neuroscience.
UC has sent requests to the Ohio Department of Higher Education to retain several programs for another year and merge others into different departments instead of eliminating them. Those include associate's degrees in chemistry, English, history, and pre-medical lab science at its regional campuses. The university also is looking to merge its bachelor's programs in Africana studies, Arabic language and culture, and French, along with Asian, German, Latin American, Latinx, Caribbean and Judaic studies. Undergraduate arts and sciences degrees in biological chemistry, classical civilization, geography, geology and the major women's, gender, and sexuality, also may merge. Plus, several of UC's music programs could merge into a new, singular music performance degree if the school's request is approved by the state.
UC's Office of the Provost says students already enrolled in these programs still will be able to graduate as planned.
"This is a challenging time, especially for faculty, staff and students directly connected to the affected programs," a portion of the office's message read. "Change of this nature calls for reflection, open dialogue and compassion."
Meanwhile, at Miami...
At Miami University, a similar consolidation of departments is underway. The university announced its intention to downsize some of its arts and humanities programs several years ago due to low enrollment.
The university's new world languages and cultures major was developed earlier this year, combining the university's former Latin, East Asian, French, German, Italian, Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian language and culture degrees into a singular program.
When news of the initial proposal reached campus, students protested it, calling upon university leadership to maintain and strengthen its cultural programs.
Miami's new interim provost, Chris Makaroff, stands by the decision, saying it was made to better utilize the university's resources and, perhaps unintentionally, prevented Miami from rushing to eliminate programs in compliance with the new state law.
"This is a process we're going through right now that started a while back. Obviously, Senate Bill 1 put some teeth into it," Makaroff told WVXU.
The interim provost says the decision to combine language and culture majors was made with input and the approval of faculty and students. When Miami eliminates, changes or creates a new major, the change must be approved by the school's university senate, which is comprised of faculty, students, staff and administrators.
Nathan French, the chair of the senate's executive committee, says the senate and faculty members have played an important role in ensuring academic material isn't lost when departments are consolidated, but that's changing.
Going beyond the bill
Ohio's most recent budget, signed into law earlier this year, includes new rules for who can approve degrees, courses and curriculum requirements. Under the new rules, a university's board of trustees has the ultimate authority to approve changes, leaving faculty senates with only the ability to advise trustees on changes. The rule does not apply to Ohio's state-mandated "intellectual diversity centers," which were created in 2023 to combat what proponents of the center call "liberal bias" on college campuses. The centers can make decisions on courses independently without university approval.
French says this new law may allow universities to add and remove programs faster, without needing to gather input from all those affected.
"I think (to) the general public, perhaps some politicians, that process of slow and careful deliberation is seen as too slow to respond to crises facing higher education."
Those crises, interim provost Makroff says, are in part the high cost of higher education and its perceived value. That's why Miami is continuing to consider shrinking other departments.
Similar to the humanities, Miami's College of Creative Arts also has programs with low enrollment. Makaroff says that's because many students are coming to the university now with an interest in business, engineering or nursing, and don't see the financial value in a creative arts degree. The next step, the provost says, is a reorganization of the art department to better align with the current job market.
"What we're doing there is to try to find a way to see a more direct path to a career, and sort of eliminate the stigma of 'starving artist,' " Makaroff said. "No one's going to go into a degree — even if you're passionate about it — if you're going to be starving."
Even though the faculty and university senate no longer have the final say, the interim provost says university leaders will look to faculty early in the decision-making process to gather their input, so core pieces of the school aren't lost in the effort to keep up with the latest trends.
"It's not that we don't believe that the humanities and the social sciences are important; we think it's essential," he said. "We just need to find a way to offer it so that we have well-rounded students, but maybe not an advanced curriculum that would be associated with a major."
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