WEST LAFAYETTE, IN – One department and a major at Purdue University are being axed this year under a new state law that seeks to cut “low enrollment programs” at universities in Indiana.
The Department of Agricultural Sciences, Education and Communications is set to shutter in June, Provost Patrick Wolfe said at a Monday university senate meeting. It’s the only department at the university affected by the law so far, Wolfe said.
“It’s not to say that there won’t be others in the future that might be impacted,” he said, “but this is the first one that’s been impacted.”
Also being closed is the agricultural and natural resources communications major. The department’s other program, agricultural education, will still be offered through another department, according to the university’s website.
The department’s closure is a result of a law passed by the Indiana General Assembly last year that mandates university programs must meet minimum enrollment thresholds to continue being offered: 10 students for an associate’s degree, 15 for a bachelor’s, seven for a master’s or three for a doctorate.
Purdue, like other universities in the state, began reviewing its programs in June to determine which it could keep and which would have to go.
At the time, at least 48 of Purdue’s bachelor programs were determined to be at risk of elimination or consolidation, according to U.S. Department of Education data.
Administrators emphasized, though, that students in any affected programs will still be able to finish their degrees before graduating, while Purdue stops enrolling any new students in the programs – a process the university calls “teaching out.”
That is what will happen to the Department of Agricultural Sciences, Education and Communications and its cut major.
After the department closes, its 11 tenured faculty will stay employed elsewhere in the College of Agriculture, President Mung Chiang said. As for its eight staff members, the university is reviewing what to do with their employment.
“It does not mean that they will no longer have a job at the university,” he said. “It’s a standard HR process that has to unfold.”
