A few weeks ago, Utica University announced that 15 majors would most likely be cut from the university. This proposal has caused backlash from some faculty and students.

“It’s been a very frustrating process,” said Leonore Fleming, associate professor of the philosophy school of arts and science and faculty union president. “It’s been a very long process. There’s been a lot of angst.”

Back in August, the Utica University Board of Trustees issued a resolution stating that there has been a significant decline in enrollment which has resulted in unsustainable faculty-to-student ratio. As a result, programs would be designed, redesigned or eliminated.

Fleming says there has been a lack of transparency from the board members on how they came to this decision.

“The faculty have asked for a lot of information, a lot of data [and] a lot of evidence,” Fleming said. “We have been promised a lot of data and evidence and that data has been withheld from us. Those explanations have been withheld from us.” 

Early October, the University’s provost, Todd Pfannestiel, informed the union that a task force task would review the matter and provide recommendations about the institution's academic portfolio. The task force consisted of 12 people, four of them being faculty members who were appointed by the provost.

“Members of the task force had to keep all of their discussions confidential and this meant that any members on the faculty task force couldn’t consult with other faculty,” Fleming said. “And so it doesn’t feel like we really had faculty representation.” 

The president of the university, Laura Casamento, says she believes there was transparency between herself, the administration and the faculty.

“One of the things the task force did was they looked at nine years of institutional data,” Casamento said. “All of our faculty and all of our programs have that data. It’s nine years’ worth. We share it during program reviews. So did they get the actual report, the final report? No, because I then took the report and I reviewed it for about eight weeks and then I made my recommendation.”

On Jan. 18, Casamento and Board of Trustees Chair Bob Bvrenik announced that 15 majors would be cut and eight majors would need to be modified or also risk elimination. The majors range from accounting, to chemistry to philosophy.

Casamento says she has had a lot of interaction with students and she says they seem to be in a good place.

“There could be a handful of students that are confused about what this means for them,” Casamento said. “But we’ve been very clear that it means there is no change for them at all.” 

She says these recommendations are due to the fact that there is a small number of students enrolling in these majors, however, it’s important to understand that her recommendation is not to cut these majors, but to have them sunset and the minors and concentrations will still exist.

“Every current student that’s here, whether they are a current student or recently accepted into these majors, they will be taught out in their completion,” Casamento said. “So, if someone is a freshman, they’re going to be able to graduate three years from now with this major and they will be fully supported and resourced to do that. So I think that’s really important.” 

The union plans to meet with Casamento by Feb. 7 to discuss these matters, which is the third step in the grievance that they filed against the university.

“I really do hope that the board of trustees will read our censure document and consider working with us and re-do this entire academic process and do it correctly,” Fleming said. 

The board of trustees will be voting on the recommendations from the president on Feb. 17.