A rigorous degree program coupled with the black college experience no doubt helps to cultivate students attending the country’s 107 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to be the well trained and skilled leaders of tomorrow. But sometimes colleges have to discontinue programs due to lack of student participation, among other things.
On Thursday North Carolina’s Board of Governors educational planning committee decided “to discontinue 46 degree programs across the UNC-System,” including four at Elizabeth City State University, reports DailyTarHeel.com.
“Junius Gonzales,” writes Sam Schaefer, “senior vice president for academic affairs for the UNC-System, led the review of program productivity, which refers to the number of degrees granted in programs annually.”
The chancellor of Elizabeth City State University Stacey Franklin Jones said, for the most part, she was satisfied with what Gonzales called “an art, not a science”.
[quote_box_center]“Part of what Dr. Gonzales said was that it’s an imperfect process,” Jones said.
Jones said that ECSU’s responsibility to respond to regional needs made the maintenance of some low-productivity programs essential.
“(It was) very encouraging — just that acknowledgement that it’s an art, not a science,” she said.[/quote_box_center]
Board member and also the vice chairman of the academic planning committee Steven Long commenting on his concern of the word “discontinuation” said, “They think you’re eliminating a lot of the cost, but we’re really only eliminating a little bit of the cost.”
“We’re really not discontinuing the whole program; we’re just scaling it back,” Long said.
According to the student newspaper, other NC historically black colleges lost programs for a total of 14 including, Fayetteville State University, North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, North Carolina Central University, and Winston-Salem State University.
—
Elizabeth City State University: Special Education, General Curriculum; Middle Grades Education; English, Secondary Education; Political Science
Fayetteville State University: Art Education; Music Education; Biotechnology
North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University: Comprehensive Science Education; Physical Education
North Carolina Central University: Theatre; Jazz
Winston-Salem State University: Biotechnology; Elementary Education; Teaching English as a Second Language and Linguistics
