It has been a trying six months for faculty and students at Utica University after an announcement was made that 15 majors would most likely be eliminated from the university. Students and faculty expressed their concerns and even held a rally to protest against it. It was last week when the university’s board of trustees announced that 13 majors would be eliminated.

Leonore Fleming is a philosophy professor at Utica University and the president of the American Association of University Professors for Utica University. She has been advocating against the major elimination since it was first introduced in August. And two weeks ago, she led a rally on campus to protest against the elimination.

She says she is happy the board did not eliminate the physics and chemistry majors, but says there is still a lack of transparency on how the decision was made to eliminate 13 majors.

“However, the report really didn’t contain any financial information,” Fleming said. “They referenced financial summaries and analyses but did not provide that to the union and they didn’t provide it to the Utica University community. It’s unclear if any of these decisions will actually save money and it’s quite possible that these decisions could actually harm Utica University financially.” 

The university presented a comprehensive report to faculty, students and staff. In the report, the board states that any claims made about inequitable marketing resources is hearsay and there is no evidence to support it.

“However, the university’s own documents publicly state that we pay a number of third-party companies in order to help us market to a select group of programs,” Fleming said. “So we pay Wiley and Orbis to help enroll students in our accelerated nursing program. We pay Vont Marketing to encourage recruiting students into nursing, construction management, physical therapy and sports management.” 

Fleming says it is very contradicting and she feels the board has not provided enough information on why these majors are being eliminated.

The 13 majors being eliminated include sociology and anthropology, healthcare management, criminal justice, nutrition, philosophy and public relations and marketing. For students currently enrolled in the majors being eliminated, they will be able to finish out their degree.

“I think sociology and anthropology is a really important major,” freshman sociology and anthropology major Kelsey Elliott said. “So it kind of makes me sad that they won’t be having it anymore. It doesn’t necessarily make me uneasy because they will graduate me out.” 

For other students, the change has made them uneasy and unsure about the future of the university.

“I’ve had students come into my office and talk to me about how to transfer and I even had one student ask me to write her a letter of recommendation in order to transfer somewhere else because her program was cut,” Fleming said.

Fleming says they will keep fighting this because they care about the university and their students. And with the announcement of the new president, she says she is optimistic that things can improve.

“I am hopeful that Provost Pfannestiel as our new president will be able to bring back a culture of meaningful shared governance,” Fleming said. “Given his strong academic background, I’m sure that he recognizes the importance of faculty expertise, especially when it comes to curriculum decisions.” 

The Utica University Faculty Union is preparing for arbitration where they will work out their matters with the university.

The union feels the university violated their contract with the way they changed the curriculum. 

Laura Casamento, president of the university, says the decision to cut the majors was based on the academic review from the task force created which followed the appropriate process.