The Speaker of the Faculty Senate Angie Price emailed President Mark A. Welsh III and Provost Alan Sams on Oct. 2 to advocate for the end of the process currently being used to axe 52 minors and certificates, according to an email obtained by The Battalion.
“After hearing from many faculty, as well as administrators and students, the inescapable conclusion that I have come to is that the development of the process and its implementation were deeply flawed and lacked meaningful input from many stakeholders,” Price wrote in the email.
After thanking Welsh and Sams for meeting with her to discuss the concerns, she requested the thresholds used to inactivate the programs be “completely abandoned” and that impacted minors and certificates “be allowed to continue and enroll students.” The Office of the Provost seeks to end minors or undergraduate certificates that have not graduated 10 students in the last two years or does not enroll at least five students at a time. Graduate certificates require six graduates or a minimum enrollment of three students.
“I also request that the Faculty Senate be allowed to work with the administration to develop a revised process with reasonable timelines and metrics, aligned with relevant state and federal requirements, which would be applied in a forward-facing, not retroactive manner,” Price wrote.
Price said the change would allow inactivations to be open and transparent in a way that provides the community an understanding of “the goals of such a process.” Furthermore, it would allow all involved parties to review the minors and certificates “in an impartial manner, with no surprises to anyone,” as Price said faculty were not aware of timelines and metrics when asked to close programs. In a statement, Sams said the inactivations were due to low enrollment and were being done to maintain “credentials of value to our students.”
Price did not respond to requests for comment, and a university spokesperson did not respond in time for publication. It’s unclear whether Price’s proposals were accepted or further discussed.
The proposal to end 14 minors and 38 certificates has faced backlash from faculty who claim the provost’s initiative violates shared governance, the concept that faculty have a strong say in the university’s proceedings.
According to multiple faculty choosing to remain anonymous to discuss sensitive matters, such a move by Sams — who is only outranked by Welsh when excluding the System — would be the first time a provost has made such a decision in recent history. Besides deans, few faculty were aware of the new thresholds, and most learned of them when asked to end their programs.
If continued unhindered, the Faculty Senate will eventually vote on the proposals once they pass prior committees and regulatory actions. As of publication, the public Faculty Senate agenda states Sams will appear at the Oct. 14 meeting as a guest speaker. No programs impacted by the thresholds are part of the agenda.
As previously reported by The Battalion, “inquiries around the LGBTQ minor” in June 2023 spurred a university investigation that found dozens of programs with few graduates and enrollees. Despite state guidelines not requiring enrollment thresholds for minors and certificates, Sams worked with deans in August 2023 to develop the metrics now being used to end 52 programs — 16.25% of the 320 total offered at Texas A&M.
The provost began ordering programs and departments to begin the inactivation process in late August and early September. Each request must pass multiple internal stages, such as the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, or UCC, which must approve changes to the undergraduate curriculum.
The committee met on Oct. 4 and voted to approve the inactivation of five certificates and four minors, according to the publicly available minutes. Of the list, all five certificates and three of the minors are part of the 52 the provost seeks to end due to low enrollment.
- Cultural Competency – Certificate
- Landscape Management – Certificate
- Watershed – Certificate
- Quantitative Economic Methods – Certificate
- Diversity – Certificate
- Global Art Design and Construction – Minor
- Global Health – Minor
- Asian Studies – Minor
The eight programs now head to the Faculty Senate and will likely be discussed during the Oct. 14 meeting. While the programs are not currently on the senate agenda, UCC has until the day of the meeting to submit them.
