Late to this thread but my IMO this is all just an administrative restructuring.
For example, Kelley has ALL 10,000+ students under ONE degree (Bachelor of Science in Business), even though there are 20-odd majors ranging from Finance to Marketing to Information Systems. This is no different from most other business schools, which typically have only a single degree (BBA) with multiple concentrations, majors and pathways etc.
Similarly, the O’Neill School of Public Policy also has one primary degree (Bachelor of Science in Public Affairs) with multiple concentrations ranging from nonprofit management to law. This does not affect what students put on their Linkedin’s, their resumes, or how they present themselves in interviews with companies. It’s simply an administrative system since most students take a ‘core’ set of classes freshman/sophomore year and then specialize junior year onwards.
For languages, education, arts & sciences etc., my personal hunch is that departments had an incentive to make every single concentration or set of classes a new ‘degree’ in a bid to get more funding, even if the new degree simply rehashes 90% of what was already being offered, or only had 3 students in it. This change now standardizes classification of degrees vs. majors vs. concentrations across schools. Until we’re told otherwise, I don’t see faculty being laid off or classes being discontinued.
maybe not, but but re-reading the article I think it will change composition of classes based on the article (alone).
“One section of the bill gives the governor total control over the composition of the Indiana University Board of Trustees.”
…There will be post-tenure reviews, reduction in power of faculty senate/governance on policy matters.
“during the most recent legislative session, one of our top agenda items included ensuring that Indiana’s higher education institutions are preparing students for career opportunities in the most in-demand fields of today and the future.””
That adds up, to me, that they are giving themselves the power to have politicians have a lot more power and they say they are focusing on pre-professional degrees and getting rid of others.
That said, politicians get distracted and certainly may not use their proposed powers.
I don’t know how Indiana’s public universities allocate funding, so maybe it was the case there, but anywhere I’ve been, funding follows student credit hours and—at a much lower level—departmental structures, not degree programs.
It’s survived accreditation probation for financial issues once already, but it’s been just two years since that was lifted. The fact that it’s likely headed toward probation again already is more than concerning.
When we first looked at colleges for my D24, Albright was on the list and she was accepted with nice merit $. I didn’t know anything about the college search process at that time. Thanks to CC I learned to dig into the finances of the schools we were considering. Albright came off the list. It’s a shame. When I went to college way back when, it was considered a solid choice for some students.