University of Arkansas System trustees approved plans Monday to restructure the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
The measures are intended to help the financially struggling university become sustainable again after budget shortfalls in recent years.
Trustees approved the plans on a voice vote without opposition and asked only one question about them. Chairman John Goodson called the work done by Chancellor Christina Drale on the plans "remarkable."[DOCUMENT: Introduction to reports submitted to the UA Board of Trustees » arkansasonline.com/55plan/]
"From the chair I sit looking down, it's remarkable that it's moved as fluid as it has," Goodson said. "We hope you have continued success as you move down this path."
UA System President Donald Bobbitt noted a stack of papers, which he said measured about an inch and a half, containing comments on Drale's academic retrenchment proposal from people on campus and in the community.
It's unclear the last time an Arkansas university began academic retrenchment, if any have. UA System and Arkansas Division of Higher Education leadership said they couldn't recall another instance.
Retrenchment is not an option outlined in state law but rather a policy established by boards of trustees across the state.
UALR finds itself in this position after years of enrollment declines and budget deficits. Most recently, the university encountered an $11 million deficit this year, about half of which was budgeted for and about half of which was incurred when the budget approved by trustees last year was based on enrollment projections that were far too optimistic.
The new UALR leadership has said that previous leaders treated the enrollment declines, which now total 10 consecutive years, as temporary and never restructured the university's operations accordingly.
"In previous years, the institution had used the method of across-the-board cuts, which was efficient, but indiscriminate and had the effect of weakening all units," Drale wrote in her memo introducing the plans to the trustees.[DOCUMENT: UALR academic college restructuring plan » arkansasonline.com/55college/]
The plans approved Monday are a reorganization of the campus's five colleges into three and a reduction of academic offerings and faculty. The reorganization is expected to eventually save the university $1 million annually through administrative cost reductions.
The college restructuring program eliminates the five existing colleges -- Arts, Letters, and Sciences; Business; Education and Health Professions; Engineering and Information Technology; and Social Sciences and Communication -- and replaces them with three colleges. Beginning July 1, those will be the College of Business, Health, and Human Services; the College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education; and the Donaghey College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
The academic retrenchment proposal doesn't come with a saved-cost estimate, and savings from it won't occur until programs that are to be reduced or eliminated are "taught out" for students already enrolled in them.
Drale first floated her plans to the UALR faculty at the end of March after receiving feedback from two campus committees.
The faculty senate expressed concern that Drale's plans were more drastic than suggested. It asked her, Bobbitt and system trustees to delay retrenchment planning until the effects of the covid-19 pandemic on higher education could be seen. .
The proposal submitted Monday had only a few changes from what Drale proposed more than a month ago. For instance, the Master of Arts and the certificate of proficiency in applied design would be maintained instead of cut. The world languages bachelor degree would be maintained instead of reduced. But the master's degree in public administration would be reduced instead of maintained.
University Provost Ann Bain and department deans will determine the details of the retrenchment, including specific courses to be cut and specific instructors to be terminated.
Faculty senate President Amanda Nolen said Monday that she was disappointed but not surprised with the proposal.
"It's just a really sad day for the university," she said.
Nolen said she was happy to see the French program at least be temporarily maintained but was sad to see cuts to performing arts and educational doctoral programs. The doctoral programs, she noted, supported a part of the university's strategic plan, which establishes educational leadership programs as a university priority.
Drale declined to maintain or simply reduce the handful of educational doctoral programs she recommended for cutting. In her memo outlining her final plans, she noted the dropping enrollment and low graduation rates in one program and the redundancy among others.
Faculty members were united around maintaining all of those programs, contrary to the proposal to cut many of them, Nolen said. Seeing Drale's plans go the other way made it feel like the faculty members' role in determining the university's academic offerings was being taken out of their hands, she said.
Nonetheless, Nolen said, Drale was faced with an "impossible task," likening her attempt at reducing the financially struggling, shrinking university's programming to "squeezing blood from a stone."
Drale's final retrenchment plans note four priorities for the university: maintaining a "liberal arts core"; providing programs in demand in the region; providing graduate-level programs "in critical need" for state and regional development; and maintaining the university's status as an R2-level research university, per the Carnegie Classification.
Carnegie classifications refer to the level of research activity that takes place at a school. UALR and Arkansas State University are the only R2-level schools in the state. The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville is an R1.
Last week, the faculty senate submitted a 15-page response to Drale's original proposal, calling it premature.
"Because of the interconnectedness of academic programs through the general education core and other program requirements, it is paramount that academic planning consider how program reductions or eliminations may inadvertently cause instability in other program areas across the university," the memo reads. "While we agree with the ultimate goal of streamlining the university, we disagree with the pace and scope of these reductions. A fuller analysis of both the intended and unintended consequences of each action should be made, and the reductions should be spread out over time to allow the university to accommodate."
The faculty senate also took issue with how the student-to-faculty ratio of programs was calculated. It assumed a full-time graduate student was enrolled in 12 credit hours, when the faculty senate contends a full-time graduate student is enrolled in nine credit hours.
"This approach grossly privileges undergraduate programs over graduate programs and skews the output to create a distorted picture of the faculty/student ratio," the memo reads.
In terms of academic programs, the faculty senate agreed with many of the chancellor's proposals. It mostly took issue with Drale's proposed changes to the world languages, performing arts and educational doctoral programs.
In asking to keep several educational doctoral programs, the faculty senate noted the greater-than-usual diversity of the programs and the university's location in the state's most populous region.
"Because this institution is located at a center of industry, we provide an important resource for these sectors through doctoral education," the memo reads.[DOCUMENT: UALR Chancellor's retrenchment proposal » arkansasonline.com/55proposal/]
The faculty senate wanted to maintain the French concentration in the world languages program to keep foreign language instruction beyond Spanish. The faculty senate additionally wanted to give the university's performing arts programs, theater and dance, time to restructure.
Instead, Drale proposed eliminating the dance program and reducing the theater program. Originally, Drale had proposed reducing each program and combining them. Drale changed her mind, she wrote in her final proposal, because of the difficulty of combining the programs. Instructors lacked the ability to cross over, and curricula varied too much between the programs, she wrote.
In her decision to maintain the French concentration in her final plans after initially proposing to reduce it, Drale noted the arguments from faculty that the French program can be turned around and that offering the program helps recruit high achievers in high school who may have studied it.
Nonetheless, she wrote, "I remain concerned that without a broader requirement for second language study, any language besides Spanish will be difficult to sustain as a full major. I am not convinced that all of the enthusiastic support from faculty will translate into more students studying French."
A Section on 05/05/2020