Not that the majors are unnecessary, but the duplication of availability of them within the UW System is unnecessary. This is the kind of stuff that has caused the cost of higher education to outstrip inflation for decades.
The University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point said its 2018 Point Forward plan to scrap 13 majors was an opportunity to be more nimble. Faculty members, meanwhile, petitioned to remove their chancellor and provost and asked if Stevens Point could remain a true university without core liberal arts fields such as history and foreign languages.
At the same time, professors across the University of Wisconsin system looked at Stevens Point as a test case. How would recent changes to state law and system policies making it easier to cut programs and faculty members be exercised in practice? And would other campuses follow? Even beyond the state, the university’s proposed cuts attracted attention and opposition from professors and academic groups.
Now — after already taking seven majors off the chopping block, leaving just six — Stevens Point is cutting nothing. Chancellor Bernie Patterson announced the development Wednesday in a campus memo saying that the “curricular proposals related to Point Forward have been resolved.”
Oh, and it’s clear that the faculty still runs these universities.