As a part of the annual budgeting process, Idaho’s State Board of Education has required all public universities to evaluate their programs.
The Academic Program Prioritization Taskforce (APPT) at the University of Idaho presented their progress on considering program terminations at Faculty Senate’s Wednesday meeting.
The taskforce is meant to meet specific university goals to evaluate programs in response to the budget crisis, said APPT Chair, Rachel Halverson. Program closures may result in the termination of faculty members as well.
Jodi Walker, UI’s director of communications, said that while faculty members could be cut if program cuts do occur, the process is not as simple as believed.
“Non-renewing faculty is a multi-year process — even for non-tenured faculty — and needs to be balanced with the fact we would teach out all students in a program,” Walker said in an email.
University of Idaho | Courtesy
Faculty members may also have other teaching appointments in other areas, and that would change the focus of their teaching.
The taskforce for this review is focusing on areas that lack student enrollment but are considering other factors.
Similar to program prioritization in 2017, the task force now is using both quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate what programs they could cut.
The task force first evaluated programs quantitatively, considering statistics like tuition revenue and program credit hours. This allows programs to be grouped into five quintiles, with those in the fifth quintile considered for termination.
Using this data, results are sent to deans to address the programs at the bottom. Programs that the deans select will then be presented to the APPT for final consideration.
Presentations will be given by approximately 15 programs, which are still to be selected.
Haadiya Tariq can be reached at [email protected]