Sven Alskog
News Editor
Following the August meeting of the Idaho State Board of Education, Idaho State University is facing potential changes to its offering of academic degrees.
While alterations to the current system have yet to be made, programs such as German, French and American Sign Language are most likely to have their degrees removed from the ISU catalog completely.
A key focus of the new requirement from the State Board of Education is something called program prioritization.
“The point of it is to make sure state funds are being spent in the most effective way possible,” said Associated Students of Idaho State University (ASISU) President Kyle Son.
Rather than having an option of both a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science degree for the same program, the idea is to combine these into just one, saving the state and university money, while also not eliminating the program.
Some degrees will most likely be removed, however most will be consolidated under the current plan going forward.
This provides a better alternative for those involved in the decisions as there will be less of a need for elimination.
“With any merger there is a lot of good and bad,” said Son. “Obviously consolidation is better than elimination.”
“Our university did a pretty good job avoiding cuts,” he added.
The group of degrees that has been talked about heavily for a merger lies with multiple science-related graduate level programs.
One of the ideas that has been discussed is to consolidate the Master’s of Natural Science degrees in areas such as physics, chemistry, geology and biology into something more streamlined.
This new degree would reportedly be a Master’s of Natural Science also with different course work for each emphasis area.
While any changes forthcoming may not be ideal for the university, Son takes the stance that it will help ensure proper spending from the higher-ups of the institution.
“The state board asked every state university to do this to make sure all the money is being spent in the best way possible,” he said.
The accreditation of ISU will be taking place in October.
To prepare for this, the university is trying to get these changes on paper prior to then, according to Son.
Certain non-academic programs are also being considered for a similar fate as their academic counterparts.
ISU Vice President for Finance and Administration Jim Fletcher informed the Idaho State Journal that around $650,000 in savings could occur within three years by using elimination, merger or consolidation of non-academic programs.
Within the ISU presentation at the board meeting was an explanation of why academic and non-academic programs are evaluated separately.
The explanation comes from a July 22, 2013 Guidance Memo on program prioritization by the State Board of Education from Selena Grace and Matt Freeman.
“Board members stated that this is essentially a performance evaluation of the administrative programs, looking at efficiency, effectiveness, and the benefit/value to students and the institution,” the memo read.
Overall the goal of program prioritization at ISU will be to eliminate as few programs as possible, instead merging so that more departments will be sharing finances and resources, saving the university money in the long run.
Agendas, minutes and presentations from the August meeting of the Idaho State Board of Education can be found online at boardofed.idaho.gov, followed by clicking the ‘Meetings’ and ‘Current Year Meeting Materials’ links.
