Wichita State University Closing Down its Women’s Studies Department
“its degree program will be merged with the English Department”
The story says there has been continuously low interest in the program by students. Very interesting.
The College Fix reports:
One of oldest women’s studies departments in U.S. on chopping block
Wichita State University is closing its women’s studies department, one of the oldest in the country, due to continuously low student interest.
The Department of Women, Ethnicity, and Intersectional Studies will be dissolved and its degree program will be merged with the English Department, according to an action plan approved earlier this month by the Kansas Board of Regents.
“As part of the Board’s academic program review process, this year the six state universities in Kansas collectively looked at 31 programs that didn’t meet at least three of four metrics related to enrollment, graduation, employment and earnings,” regents spokesperson Matt Keith said.
Keith told The College Fix in a recent email the women’s studies department was one of five that Wichita State identified in the review. He said the merger will “maintain the program but reduce administrative costs.”
University spokesperson Lainie Mazzullo-Hart told The Fix in a recent email that, with the merger, “students with an interest in this academic area would still be able to pursue those interests at WSU.”
The action plan states the merger with the English Department “will ensure students’ interest in this area of study will remain a priority and students are afforded continued opportunities for in-depth study of the discipline through the field major … or as a minor.”
Wichita State began its women’s studies program in 1971, according to The Sunflower, the university student newspaper. It is “one of the longest-standing, degree-granting, autonomous Women’s Studies departments in the country,” according to the department website.
Since 2020, the university has been working to address “low enrollment, student demand, and degree production trends” in the department, according to its action plan.
The employment rate and the Student ROI, or median salary five years after graduation, met university metrics, according to the report. However, student demand and degree production did not.
Over the past four years, the department increased course offerings and made other changes to reverse “the downward direction of enrollment numbers,” the action plan stated.
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Comments
Grievant Studies.
Couldn’t fill it up with trans-women, like your Athletic Department did, eh?
Does KS have anti-DEI rules in place? If so this may merely be a way to evade their intent.
College administrators are constantly placing bets. They are predicting where future demands and student interest in higher education will flow. For example, today there is a large increase in Artificial Intelligence and other data sciences. Could that be preicted 50 years ago?
In 1970, the role of women in society was rapidly evolving, and there was a lot of new scholarship in that area. While the culture surrounding women was in flux, it would make sense for academics to specialize in that area and for colleges to invest in Women Studies. With a majority of college students now being women, and with women integrated into the workforce, it may be time to refocus.
I am impressed that the Kansas state schools conducted a systematic review using objective criteria. However, so long as professors have tenure, changes to the system will be very slow and somewhat unresponsive. How much of the resources freed up by these changes will be devoted to early retirement buyouts?