Renowned programs ingrained in Indiana University's history weren’t spared when university leaders volunteered to eliminate or consolidate degrees with low numbers of graduates.
After legislators added a statute to the state’s budget bill, Indiana’s public universities volunteered to cut, merge and suspend more than 400 programs across the state. The requirement went into effect on July 1.
IU volunteered to end or consolidate 245 degrees, according to a July 10 update. Affected programs include about four dozen foreign language and cultural programs. The programs once helped shape IU’s identity and prestige. But today, the degree programs don’t meet the graduation threshold set by legislators.
“Our programs consistently rank among the highest in the nation,” said Alison Calhoun, associate professor of French and Francophone studies. “The question would be, will we be able to recuperate that loss of reputation?”
The Commission for Higher Education (CHE) will likely finalize the changes July 24 and issue more guidance in the next year. Commissioner Chris Lowery was not available for an interview, but staff provided a statement on the new degree requirements.
The commission said one of Gov. Mike Braun’s priorities is ensuring Indiana’s higher education institutions prepare students for “the most in-demand fields of today and the future.” That priority came as legislators dealt with a tight budget and a $2 billion shortfall.
“As with any enterprise, right-sizing underutilized offerings and strategically reallocating resources will improve the cost, quality, and delivery of remaining, higher-utilization programs,” the commission said.
The commission also had concerns over the increased number of degree programs across the state.
“The trend of adding but rarely removing academic degree programs, coupled with years of an overall college-going rate decline – particularly for those programs with lower or zero enrollment, graduates, and career relevance – has been a key area of focus for CHE,” the commission said.
To comply with the new law, public colleges proactively volunteered to end or merge degree programs with zero-to-low enrollments and completions, it said.
IU recognized, awarded for foreign languages
Championed by President Herman B Wells, IU’s foreign language programs are deeply ingrained into its history and its international reputation.
The university boasts it teaches more than 70 languages — more than any other U.S. university. Many are top-ranked. Programs teaching critical languages have been magnets for federal funding and prestigious awards due to their importance for national security and global issues.
IU has been recognized as one of the most important centers of language education in the U.S. by the Modern Language Association. Paula M. Krebs, executive director of the MLA, urged IU President Pamela Whitten to stand up to lawmakers and work with faculty members “to find creative responses to the state legislation.”
“This elimination of so many humanities programs as well as programs in education, the social sciences, and the sciences, is a huge step down the road to turning a world-class university into a regional machine for churning out narrow vocational degrees,” wrote Krebs, an IU 1992 graduate.
The MLA has documented significant drops in language enrollment at IU and around the country.
“I absolutely agree that we go through a phase in which the languages, literatures and cultures have less prestige,” said Johannes Türk, chair of IU’s Department of Germanic Studies. “They go through a period in which they have significantly lower enrollment. I'm fairly certain that that will be reversed.”
Some IU faculty believe graduation thresholds set by legislators don’t reflect a department’s enrollment.
For example, Türk said “with certainty, in all respects,” IU has one of the largest German departments in the U.S. It taught hundreds of students last year, and it hosts dozens of students who minor in Germanic languages.
“A department can be valuable and have relative importance and be relatively large in its field, but it still doesn't meet the 15-student graduation rate per year,” Türk said.
Türk said his views do not represent the views of the institution.
Along with eliminating programs that don’t meet the threshold, Indiana legislators required colleges to eliminate their costs.
But language and humanities programs are cheap, Türk said. Faculty take on larger teaching loads with lower salaries, and they still love what they do. That’s a financial incentive that Wells saw when shaping IU, he said.
“If you manage to hire the best people in those fields, you can boost a university's ranking within a few years, and you can really move — for a cheap price — the academic standing of an institution, which is extremely expensive in many other fields,” Türk said.
While IU Bloomington also plans to suspend degrees for French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Slavic languages and more, Türk said he’s waiting to see how conversations for niche languages play out.
“Our degrees do contribute to success in the professional world,” he said. “It's absolutely clear that they do, especially the less frequently learned languages.”
IU’s next steps to comply with law
IU released more information on July 11 detailing how affected programs will move forward.
Some programs will be eliminated, including those without any students. Other programs may be merged into new or existing programs. The university will “teach-out” suspended programs, meaning students can still finish their degrees.
In the next year, the university will work through the process with deans, campus leaders and faculty, an IU spokesperson said. Each program has specific needs, they said, and those directly affected by the changes will hear more.
If the cuts, mergers and consolidations are approved, it would result in a net loss of 222 programs across all campuses.
Though faculty knew about the legal thresholds, Calhoun found out about the cuts from the media — not Provost Rahul Shrivastav or President Pamela Whitten.
“This is my job, and I want to hear from my bosses about what's happening and how we're facing it,” Calhoun said. “I don't feel like I'm being treated like a stakeholder that matters.”
IU Bloomington had more affected programs than any other campus in the state. Purdue University West Lafayette offered to cut or merge only six programs. IU Bloomington offered 116, including some celebrated programs.
“The question that we're asking ourselves right now is, why didn't the provost and the president want to help us advocate for continuing programs?” Calhoun said.
The IU spokesperson said university leaders are still waiting for guidance from the Commission for Higher Education to move forward with the exemption process. The commission hasn’t released graduation data for 2024, which may affect future decisions.
Though their programs may be cut or changed, Calhoun said affected faculty, staff and their families aren’t going anywhere. There’s still a lot of work ahead, she said.
“I think that we have a choice between giving up and being hopeful, and I've decided to be hopeful,” Calhoun said. “My sense is that our reputation is stronger than what has been promoted and sort of degraded by the government and by our upper administration.”
Aubrey is our higher education reporter and a Report For America corps member. Contact her at aubmwrig@iu.edu or follow her on X @aubreymwright.
