Eight UNM degree programs are in danger of being cut after the Provost’s Office flagged them for possible removal in an effort to reduce costs.
Deputy Provost Richard Holder said the programs were selected based on a set of characteristics.
“Academic degree programs were evaluated for up to 15 characteristics, such as number of majors, has the number declined by 10 percent or more, number of degrees granted, total number of credit hours produced, etc …,” he said. “Programs that had negative values for five or more of these characteristics were flagged for further review.”
Russian, Russian studies, an education degree in chemistry, Portuguese, a joint economics and philosophy degree and a master’s in Portuguese are on the chopping block, as well as a Ph.D. in French studies and Latin American studies.
Departments have until January to appeal, and Holder said the Faculty Senate will vote on the cuts during the spring semester. Before any cuts will be made, Holder said, benefits and downsides will be weighed, and departments have an opportunity to protest degree program cuts. He said the amount that could be saved by cutting the programs hasn’t been determined, as well as whether professors and classes would be cut.
“These data would be identified in the more complete study now underway for each flagged program,”
Holder said. “We are a long way from deciding if any one of these will be cut. If that were to happen, currently enrolled students would be allowed to finish.”
Natasha Kolchevska, chair of the foreign languages department, said four years ago that the Russian and Russian Studies faculty had five teaching professors but it now has two, and students pursuing the two degrees dropped from about 20 students to about 12.
“We’re already down to bare bones because the college has not given us the resources to have an adequate staff,” she said. “The reason this major has been falling is not because of the lack of interest, but because of lack of resources. If you have any pretensions to any international depth you have to cover Russia and Eastern Europe.”
Anthony Cardenas, a Portuguese professor, said the Portuguese degree program isn’t expendable.
“We have probably one of the better Portuguese programs in the country,” he said. “I think that by the time we’re done with our investigation … it would be insane to get rid of the Portuguese program.”
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