The program revisions completed by Appalachian State University’s Academic Affairs in spring 2012 were approved by the UNC Board of Governors on Aug. 1.

The BOG approved the recommendation of the various programs being consolidated or cut, but the revisions will not affect student enrollment in the programs.

In the final report from the Dec. 16, 2013 review and prioritization, there were seven programs recommended for consolidation, nine recommended for elimination due to insufficient demand, 11 programs recommended for further review, one recommended to move from the Reich College of Education to the College of Health Sciences and one name change.

The programs up for consolidation included the undergraduate programs of Appalachian studies, women’s studies, global studies, mathematics-secondary education, languages, literatures and cultures-secondary education, apparel design and merchandising, biology/ecology, evolution and environmental biology and art management, as well as the graduate program for middle grades education.

The nine programs recommended for elimination include three undergraduate programs: business education, family and consumer sciences–secondary education and technology education.

The six graduate programs recommended for elimination include: music education, history education, child development-birth to kindergarten, romance languages, gerontology, and criminal justice and criminology.

According to irap.appstate.edu, faculty and academic leaders met in the spring of 2012 to define a review and prioritization process for programs that were set to move toward national excellence, had capacity to increase research funding or scholarly productivity, had capacity to increase the service mission, were set to add additional degrees and had insufficient enrollments.

Carl Eby, chairperson of English department, said this will affect the structure of the program.

“A lot of it came down to low enrollment and cost-cutting” Eby said. “There was some pressure to consolidate CIP codes [under one degree program].”

CIP codes, also known as the classification of instructional programs codes, are area classifications that support the accurate tracking and reporting of fields of study, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics.

“[It was] more consolidation than outright cancellation,” Eby said. “Some classes thrive, and some don’t. These classes were easy to consolidate.”
Consolidation sometimes means programs are moved into other areas of study, such as women’s studies.

“For instance, women’s studies used to be a concentration in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, but years ago when the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies was eliminated, its academic programs moved to University College,” said Kim Hall,  director of women’s studies and professor of philosophy.

Some biology programs have also been consolidated, moving several programs to one CIP code to prevent total elimination.

“This is not a discontinued program – all three tracks of the biology degree are now under one code, that is the extent of it,” said Susan Edwards, chairperson of the Department of Biology.

Students can still get a degree in biology, ecology, evolutionary and environmental biology, cell/molecular biology and biology in secondary education.

The programs up for further review include the three undergrad programs of community and regional planning, philosophy and religious studies.

The nine graduate programs recommended for further review include computer science, higher education-specialist, middle grades education and elementary education, english, psychology-general experimental/clinical, industrial-organization psychology and human resource management and nutrition.

Health education-secondary education was recommended to move from the college of education to the college of health sciences and cell/molecular biology was recommended to change to biology.

Story: Kaitlan Morehouse, Intern News Reporter

Correction: In a previous article, “BOG approves Appalachian major program revisions,” published in the Aug. 27, 2014 edition of The Appalachian, it was stated that the graduate program, M.A. in Romance Languages, had been recommended for elimination. The program was recommended by the UNC Board of Governors as such, the Academic Policies and Procedures committee recommended that the decision be reconsidered. The provost and chancellor saw this motion through and overturned the decision.

Additionally, the article stated that the Women’s Studies program had been consolidated, however, the quote was used out of context. The program has not been consolidated, but still offers its own major in the Department of Cultural, Gender and Global Studies.

The Appalachian apologizes for this error.