The elimination of degrees for a Master of Arts in sociology and for Bachelor of Arts degrees in sociology, public administration. French and art with a concentration in teacher education now goes to the UNC system’s Board of Governors for final approval.
The ending of degree-granting in those disciplines is part of a comprehensive streamlining of academic programs designed, said Chancellor Charlie Nelms, to enhance NCCU’s “quality, efficiency and effectiveness.”
The board unanimously approved all the recommendations, except for the elimination of the masters in sociology and the bachelors in public administration, where trustee Carlton Thornton voted no.
“I thought that both programs had a lot of potential,” Thornton said.
“They could become signature programs for us. And these were the two programs that both had a lot of advocates, a lot of people supporting them. I got a lot of emails about them and heard from a lot of people.”
University officials expected that some of the advocates might come to the board meeting and want to speak about the academic restructuring.
The site of the meeting was switched from a conference room in the school’s Jones Building to a much larger auditorium in the School of Education, and microphones were placed in the aisles for potential speakers.
But the recommendations — which also included merging the mathematics and physics departments, English and modern foreign languages, environmental sciences and geography, and computer information with computer science, and moving the dance program to the theater department — sailed through quickly, with no comments from the audience.
Read more: The Herald-Sun – NCCU approves cutting five degree programs
