On Feb. 21 Southeastern’s administration submitted its official response to the University of Louisiana System (ULS) regarding the university’s low completer programs. Following the ULS’s reviews of the response, it will be forwarded to the Board of Regents  for final review and approval.

On Feb. 28, President John L. Crain’s office released notice to the university nameing the submitted programs along with their institutional recommendations within the response.

If a program is terminated, it will be discontinued indefinitely. Terminated and consolidated programs will be reformatted as concentrations within their academic diciplines. Finally, programs that will be allowed continued will remain unchanged.

The programs recommended for termination are mild/moderate special education, K-12; special education mild/moderate, BA; family/consumer science education, 6-12, BS; chemistry education 6-12, BS; physics education 6-12, BS; liberal arts studies, BA; cultural resource management, BA; and health studies and health education, BS.

The programs recommended for termination and consolidation are art education, K-12, BA; mathematics education 6-12, BS; music education-instrumental, BME;  music education-vocal, BME; biology education 6-12, BS; and Spanish education K-12, BA.

The programs recommended for continuation are health and physical education, BS; Spanish, BA; mathematics, BS; chemistry, BS; and physics, BS.

In the same notice Crain also indicated that terminations of tenured or tenure-track faculty will not occur as a direct result of this review of low completer programs. However, if the Board does not accept some of the proposals, terminations of faculty in affected departments will likely become reality.

Southeastern’s campus, like all universities and colleges in the state, was asked to perform a review of their academic programs identified as low completers by the Board.

On Jan. 27, the Board reformed its academic program review procedures due to stringent budget cuts. According to the ULS, the new minimum requirement for undergraduate programs to be considered a low completer program is an average of eight completers per year over a three-year period. Graduate and doctorate programs are reviewed during the same two-year period. However, graduate programs require at least five completers per year; doctorates require two.

 Crain wished to remind students, faculty and staff to keep in mind that even though these programs have been identified as low completers, they are not guaranteed to be eliminated or consolidated.

The next phase of the process will take place between Feb. 28 and April 18, during which the Board will evaluate the responses and follow up with the campuses and systems as necessary. The last phase of the review will be on April 27 when the final reports and recommendations of the campus will be submitted to the Board.