University of Wisconsin Campus Considers Eliminating 13 Majors Including English, History, Philosophy

The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is considering eliminating 13 majors that they believe do not provide a clear path to employment.

According to a report from the Washington Post, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is considering eliminating majors that don’t provide students with a clear pathway to employment. Under the proposal, the university would expand majors that have proven to ready students for lucrative careers. Such majors include marketing, management, graphic design, computer information systems, and chemical engineering would be expanded as a part of the proposal.

The university claims that 13 majors are facing elimination partially due to low enrollment. Those majors include American studies, Art, English, French, Geography, Geoscience, German, History, Music Literature, Philosophy, Political science, Sociology, and Spanish.

The school said in a statement that cutting the low enrollment majors would allow the university to grow in other areas that are more important to our evolving economy.

“To fund this future investment, resources would be shifted from programs with lower enrollment, primarily in the traditional humanities and social sciences,” a statement from the school read.  “Although some majors are proposed to be eliminated, courses would continue to be taught in these fields, and minors or certificates will be offered.”

A group of 300 students, faculty, and staff, participated in a sit-in event on Wednesday to protest the proposed changes. The protesters occupied an administration building for 13 minutes, which represented each of the majors that are facing elimination as part of the new proposal.

Some students are blaming the proposal on budget cuts put in place by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers in the state legislature.

However, Chancellor Bernie Patterson claims that the proposal is not merely a reaction to budgetary cuts. “Doing nothing, keeping things as they are is not an option,” Patterson said. “I don’t want to frame this just as a reaction to the budget,” he said. “We have an opportunity to do something different here. We have an opportunity to lead rather than follow. We have the opportunity to be at the cutting edge of education in this country.”