ISU makes progress on liberal arts cuts through incentivized … – The Gazette

Curtiss Hall (left) and the Campanile (right) on the Iowa State University campus in Ames in July 2015. (The Gazette)

As part of Iowa State Universitys goal to trim $15 million from its College of Liberal Arts and Sciences by 2025 in response to waning enrollment, swelling expenses, and other higher education headwinds the campus last year offered a retirement incentive that has persuaded 17 participants to leave.

In an update to the Board of Regents, which meets in Iowa City this week, Iowa State reported total net savings from the retirement incentive through 2026 of $7.8 million subtracting the cost of the incentive from the salary and benefits that would have been paid to retiring employees.

Those savings average out to $2.6 million a year for the current budget year through fiscal 2026 given the vast majority of the 17 employees approved for the incentive program chose the first of two retirement options.

The first, offering two years of retirement contributions plus health and dental coverage, is estimated to cost the university $22,200 a year per person. The second, offering three years of retirement contributions, is expected to cost $12,700 a year per person.

The average salary and benefit cost for the 127 tenured faculty who were eligible for the program was $127,166 and $33,445, respectively, according to board documents. To be eligible, faculty had to achieve a score of 70 calculated by adding a persons age to his or her continuous length of service, with a minimum age of 60.

Iowa State rolled out the retirement incentive two months after announcing in February 2022 a reimagining liberal arts and sciences initiative aimed at transforming the struggling college into a financially sustainable, student-centered home for learning and research.

Due to declining enrollment, rising expenses in the form of salary increases and building costs, and shifting course demand like from freshmen who fulfilled general education requirements through college-credit offerings in high school Iowa States liberal arts and sciences college in fiscal 2022 had an annual deficit of $11.4 million, relative to a $105 million operating budget.

Based on the most-current data and projection factors, the (liberal arts and sciences college) deficit is expected to grow, according to a summary of the reimagining initiative, characterizing a realistic estimate as growing from the current-year level of $11.4 million to approximately $15 million in FY2025.

Department-specific budget-reduction targets issued at that time calculating in outstanding debt per department tasked the history department with cutting the most at more than $955,000, followed by the department of physics and astronomy and then economics, charged with cutting nearly $800,000 and more than $660,000, respectively.

In response to several of the reimagining proposals, some faculty drafted a petition against defunding arts, humanities, and social science departments.

This reorganization will impair the universitys capacity to give students a well-rounded education, according to the petition. For example, to meet its demanded cut of $900,000 annually, slightly more than one-third of its annual budget of $2.7 million, the Department of History will discontinue its graduate programs, the Master of Arts in history and the doctorate in rural, agricultural, technological, and environmental history.

The ISU college in August gave an update on its $15 million reduction goal reporting about $7.5 million has been trimmed to date thanks to work from department chairs, who drafted individual plans that would enable them to meet the colleges realignment goals and their departmental budget targets.

Faculty retirements contributed to many departments cuts with 24 faculty retiring in the 2023 budget year, including 17 who took advantage of the retirement program.

"I really appreciate the hard work and thoughtful deliberation that department chairs, faculty and staff have invested, ISU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Beate Schmittmann said in a statement. "It's been an incredibly challenging process, but an important one that will prepare the college for a sustainable future."

In evaluating course and degree offerings for maximum efficiency and student interest Iowa State is in the process of sunsetting its bachelors degrees in speech communication and biophysics and also its history graduate program.

The ISU Department of History website currently alerts prospective students that it is not accepting applications at this time for its Master of Arts in history and doctoral program in rural, agricultural, technological, and environmental history.

On the Board of Regents agenda this week is a proposal to terminate Iowa States bachelors in speech communication, noting interest in the major has been dropping for at least five years. Its 2022 enrollment was 10, with 16 applications, down from an enrollment of 20 in 2018.

The department is expected to save $75,780 by eliminating the 10 courses affiliated with the major, according to board documents. No reductions in staffing are anticipated as a result of this change.

The college simultaneously is innovating with new courses and degree offerings in an attempt to reignite interest. By collaborating with other colleges across campus, ISU liberal arts is creating degrees in integrated health sciences, game design, and financial technology which have been proposed and are pending regent approval.

Iowa States Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication is eyeing a new digital media degree and sports media program both of which remain under development.

Iowa States liberal arts struggle isnt unique with the University of Iowa in 2021 conducting a self-study that documented enrollment losses and unprecedented challenges and transitions. The Chronicle of Higher Education simultaneously issued a report highlighting the dour outlook for liberal arts colleges and ways to navigate the road ahead.

Even as the challenges posed by the pandemic begin to recede, liberal-arts colleges face a long list of difficulties, including a loss of public trust in higher education, a decline in the number of traditional-age freshmen, increasing questions about whether a high-cost college degree is worth the money, and growing competition from lower-cost alternatives, according to the Chronicle report.

Forbes earlier this year reported on new challenges emerging across the liberal arts realm including artificial intelligence in the form of ChatGPT and the like. The Chronicle, in its piece, suggested recruiting a more diverse student body, developing more career-liberal arts connections, and creating niche programs.

At this weeks regents meeting, the University of Iowa is asking to terminate two liberal arts programs: its Master of Arts in Asian civilizations, which enrolled two students last year, and its masters in German, which has had no students enrolled for more than a decade since 2009.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com

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ISU makes progress on liberal arts cuts through incentivized ... - The Gazette