The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will eliminate its bachelor of arts degree in French -- and affiliated faculty members -- because of low student interest, following a recommendation by the chancellor and approval by the University of Arkansas System board of trustees Wednesday.
UALR Chancellor Christina Drale actually proposed to eliminate French in 2020 due to a "steep decline" in student interest and the trend of removing language requirements from most programs, but after campus review, she was persuaded to give French a reprieve to see if it could regain viability, she said. That didn't occur, and program enrollment has continued to decline.
Drale used the 2020 benchmark threshold of a full-time equivalent student to full-time equivalent faculty ratio of 12, and a student semester credit hours to full-time equivalent faculty ratio of 200. In 2019, the French program was at a "low" student-faculty ratio of 8-to-1 -- falling to 7-to-1 this year -- and the student semester credit hour ratio in 2019 was 123-to-1, while the ratio fell in fall 2022 to 108.5-to-1.
Eliminating the program "seems like a wise move to me," said trustee Sheffield Nelson of Little Rock.
In February, Drale notified the campus of her intent to recommend the program for elimination, and the provost, dean of the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Education, and interim chair of the Department of World Languages concurred with the recommendation, while faculty groups argued for retaining the program.
The faculty senate's ad hoc retrenchment committee said in a March 17 letter to the chancellor that they "strongly oppose the decision at this time."
The letter cites Drale's 2020 retrenchment report, which states she narrowed her recommended cuts at the time because more significant cuts would be "too destabilizing and would compromise our mission," and that a "more gradual approach" would give the campus more flexibility to see if their goals could be reached through a combination of retrenchment and increasing enrollment.
The faculty senate said they believe those principles still apply to the 2023 retrenchment and should be the guide for reviewing the French program.
"The pandemic lasted longer than originally anticipated and UA Little Rock's enrollment has begun to turn around," the senate wrote.
The program's student-to-faculty ratio and student semester credit hours-to-faculty ratio grew in 2020 and 2021, when UALR's overall enrollment continued its decline. The ratios declined "only in Fall 2022," the letter states.
According to the senate, the program is adjusting its curriculum using the 2020 retrenchment report and "additional insights gained" in the time since.
"They deserve time to see if these changes will work," the senate wrote.
The letter includes several other defenses, including the senate's concerns about the retrenchment process, the program's value to students and faculty morale.
The program is not sustainable, according to Drale. "The arguments about what could be in the future are speculative and not grounded in examples of success in similar contexts."
Other faculty arguments cited second-language study as a valuable element of a liberal arts degree and that there are myriad French companies in the state.
However, departments continue to drop their second-language mandates --second-language study is no longer a general graduation requirement in Arkansas -- and French companies are not new to Arkansas, but have had no positive impact on enrollment in UALR's French program, according to Drale.
UALR will provide "a teach out plan" for all current students majoring in this academic program. There were 10 students majoring in it as of fall 2022, according to Carrie Phillips, UALR's chief communications and marketing officer. A pair of full time equivalent faculty members will be affected by the change.
In May 2020, Drale submitted plans for "academic planning retrenchment" that were backed by UA System President Donald Bobbitt and the board of trustees. In addition to the changes made then, Drale recommended several programs be reviewed later for possible elimination, but French is the only one of those that required board action at this time.
The master of arts in Art and bachelor of science in Environmental Health Science have either been deleted or are in the process of being deleted through curricular change processes; the master of science in Health Education/Promotion and MS in Sports Management currently meet threshold metrics but will be reviewed again in two years for viability; and the certificate of proficiency in Applied Art/Design and graduate certificate in Business and Professional Writing will be reviewed for viability in two years and may be modified through curricular change processes, according to Drale.
Enrollment has actually grown in the master of arts in Public History and -- following restructuring -- several engineering degrees.
"Academic planning retrenchment" refers to a reduction in programs or services that results in the termination of faculty, tenured or untenured, "as a result of established planning activities," according to board policy.
There are three reasons for academic planning retrenchment, the policy states: board-approved changes in institutional mission, substantial program changes, and major reallocations of resources for academic or support services.
The 2020 retrenchment measures were intended to help the financially struggling university return to sustainability after budget shortfalls, as the university faced an $11 million deficit that year, about half of which was budgeted for and roughly half of which was incurred when the budget approved the previous year was based on enrollment projections that weren't met.
Drale's retrenchment plans listed four priorities: maintaining a "liberal arts core"; providing programs in demand in the region; providing graduate-level programs "in critical need" for state and regional development; and maintaining the university's status as an R2-level research university, per the Carnegie Classification. Carnegie classifications refer to the level of research activity that takes place at a school.
The plans also included a reorganization of UALR's five colleges into three and a reduction of academic offerings and faculty. The reorganization was expected to eventually save the university $1 million annually through administrative cost reductions.
Information for this article was contributed by Josh Snyder of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.