By Lindsay Smith
Bellarmine announced its new “academic restructuring” that resulted in phasing out undergraduate degrees in aging studies, foreign languages and international studies, philosophy, physics, radiation therapy, senior living leadership, Spanish and theatre, and graduate degrees in athletic training, and medical laboratory science on March 22, 2023.
Bellarmine administrators said those within their affected majors would be able to finish out their degrees as planned with relatively little disruption to their education. Beginning with the class of 2028 and following the add/drop period of Fall 2023, the majors being phased out will no longer be offered to applicants or allowed to be added by current students.
Now that the conversations surrounding the announcement have faded, the aftershocks of this decision have begun to show their long-term effects.
“The student experience should be much the same,” Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Mark Wiegand said. “There is relatively little impact on the day-to-day delivery of majors for students.”
Some majors and students within these programs agree this is the case.
“My degree most definitely has been held up to the highest standard,” said medical laboratory science major Emily Fautz. “[Our experience] is almost identical to how the program was running last year before we heard that it was ‘being sunsetted.’”
Bellarmine’s role in trying to support those affected has not gone unnoticed by some students.
Junior foreign language and international studies major Julien Allen said: “Bellarmine has done amazing at still taking care of me and doing their best to make sure that I have all of the opportunities, whether that be through study abroad or other things.”
The administration has taken steps to help students through this “sunsetting” process.
“The deans are working closely with all students in the impacted areas to develop very specific and individualized plans of completed these degrees and trying to do it in a way where students will be together in classes, be able to have groups of students who work together to finish those particular classes rather than having a series of run-off classes,” Wiegand said.
Other students, though, said they are having a completely different experience.
“It’s become nightmarish because they’re like ‘Hey, we’re offering these classes only one more time. You do need them to graduate. You won’t have input on when they’re offered or what times they are. Good luck,’” sophomore theatre and art administration major Katelyn Carter said. “I literally got an email over spring break, which made my heart drop, where she was like this is the schedule you have to follow. If you don’t follow it, we can’t guarantee you’ll graduate.”
Deans, however, said they have not seen a significant decrease in course offerings or scheduling difficulties.
Dr. Mary Huff, dean of Bellarmine’s College of Arts and Sciences, said: “Since the closure of these programs was not official until August 31st in 2023, we have continued to offer all courses in these majors so that we meet the needs of all first-year, sophomore, junior, and senior students. With that said, I don't believe that we've had any noticeable reductions in courses offered in any of these areas.”
The impact on the programs spans far beyond the students themselves and has reached into the faculty and departments.
“A lot of the grant money [faculty] were getting for research, they can’t get that because there’s not physics department anymore,” said sophomore physics and data science major Samia Mahmood. “We created a lot of revenue from research, I want to say around $4 million or so, and a lot of prestige…so the fact that they didn’t even consider that in the decision process I think that alone shows that they did not put enough thought into it.”
Transferring or switching majors became a possibility, but many of those in the affected majors chose to stay.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, so I would have never thought about changing it even given the circumstances,” Mahmood said.
Carter said: “It’s really hard to transfer. I don’t want to have to add another year. The curriculum for every school, especially for theatre, is different. Every road, unfortunately, led back to Bellarmine, and it sucks to say but it was a s*** kind of thing. I guess.”
Some students were left with limited options in their choices moving forward.
“We may be small, but we have such specific classes we have to take, and there’s not really anywhere else in the area for us to go,” Fautz said. “The closest next program is Lexington [the University of Kentucky].”
Huff said she believes that Bellarmine has done a good job ensuring that students did not choose to transfer in light of their major being cut.
“I’m not aware of any specific student who transferred due to the loss of a major,” Huff said. “I attribute that to the dedication of our faculty and their commitment to ensure that these students will graduate with the degree that they have chosen.”
Wiegand said the administration seeks to continue to build new academic programs and they are looking into the next steps for Bellarmine following this decision.
“It’s important that we work with students to find majors that they’re interested in and content areas and disciplines and things that are of interest and are rewarding for students,” Wiegand said. “And at the same time, we look into the community and see what workforce needs are and ways we can then pair student with those particular career pathways.”
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