Indiana universities cut 68 degrees with zero enrollment, will merge or suspend 300 others

Public universities in Indiana voluntarily will cut 75 different degree programs, including 68 with zero enrollment, as part of a state budget bill. More than 300 other degrees will either be suspended or consolidated as part of a new requirement to weed out low-enrollment programs, according to the state’s education department.

House Enrolled Act 1001 requires the suspension of low or zero enrollment programs unless a waiver is obtained by the state. State Representative Jeffrey Thompson sponsored the bill. He did not respond to requests for comment from The College Fix.

The Indiana Commission for Higher Education announced in a news release “that six of the state’s higher education institutions voluntarily submitted more than 400 programs for elimination, suspension, or merger/consolidation.”

The legislation affects 404 programs across Indiana. So far, 229 programs will be merged and consolidated with other programs, while 101 will be suspended with teach-out, and 74 programs will be eliminated in their entirety. 

Ball State University in Muncie led the list with 51 total programs either being eliminated or consolidated. The school will eliminate its master’s degree in Teaching Major in English/Language Arts, along with programs in software engineering, German education, and chemical technology.

Other universities have offered to cut degrees in journalism, unmanned systems, theatre and drama, and nursing education. Many of the programs are narrow education degrees or graduate programs.

A higher education expert said the budget bill will “have a positive effect.”

“The bill should have a positive effect by ensuring universities streamline programs to better align with student and industry demand,” Madison Doan, a policy analyst in the Center for Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation, told The Fix via email. “Students currently enrolled in affected programs will be able to complete their studies through a teach-out program, so public universities in Indiana will be able to fulfill their commitments to these students.”

She is the co-author of a book called Slacking, which looks at curriculum requirements for Ivy League colleges.

Doan tells The Fix that this development in higher education throughout the state of Indiana will benefit universities, students, and the legislature.

“By identifying under-enrolled programs and taking action, universities demonstrate fiscal responsibility and responsiveness to changing needs,” Doan said. “For example, West Virginia University, without legislative prompting, cut about 30 academic programs, and as my Heritage Colleague Adam Kissel said, “saving tens of millions of dollars annually through ‘right-sizing.’”

However, a Purdue University-Fort Wayne professor criticized the proposed cuts.

“Basically all the public universities in Indiana, the curriculum in those universities is now being decided by politicians,” Noor O’Neill told The College Fix via email. She is the president of the state chapter of the American Association of University Professors, a faculty union.

O’Neill said a student may be affected in the future by the consolidation of low-enrollment programs, giving the example of a student who wishes to earn a degree in anthropology but now has a degree in social science because of the Indiana bill implementation.

“You want your university to have degrees in so many different things. It helps student engagement because students are able to explore a wide range of things that interest them,” O’Neill, a professor of anthropology and women’s studies, told The Fix. Both bachelor degree programs at her school are set for consolidation.

O’Neill explains that there is not a direct way that the Indiana Conference of American Association of University Professors is responding to the implementation of budget bill.

“This is just a complete and total power grab… we truly believe that this is gonna hurt everyone in Indiana. So, we’re reaching out to our allies,” O’Neill said. “To students, to parents, to business leaders, to alumni. This is [going to] really limit the economic development in Indiana.”

Other public universities are still working on their own lists.

Purdue University recently told The Fix that a list published by the student newspaper was inaccurate. Purdue will not have a list of degrees on the chopping block until the end of this new school year, The Fix reported.