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In
his memo of July 24, 1970, to the State College Presidents, on the "Impact
of Budget Allocations on Existing and Proposed
Curricular
Programs," the Chancellor requested "that each college undertake
to review its complement of existing degree programs and courses to determine
which of these are not performing at viable levels and should thus be
phased out, in line with previous mandates from the Board of Trustees
and the Coordinating Council for Higher Education. The Division
of Academic Planning will consult with
and assist you in this matter." The Trustees, in approving
the revised Academic Master Plans on
November 23-24, 1970, also resolved "that the Colleges review their
existing and projected programs in line with the declared policy of the
Board to encourage broadly based degrees of high academic quality and
to avoid unnecessary proliferation of degrees and terminologies."
Further,
the Coordinating Council for Higher Education, by resolution adopted on
March 2, 1971, advised the California State Colleges as follows:
"Each current program leading to
a graduate degree or a credential should be reviewed periodically at intervals
of from five to ten years in order to ascertain what is needed both to
maintain and improve quality, and whether or not the program has sufficient
priority of demand upon resources to warrant its continuance." The
Coordinating Council also recommended that the California State Colleges
consider delaying the implementation of any new graduate programs until
the performance of existing graduate programs has been appraised.
While
considerable progress has been made in reassessing the structure and productivity
of degree major programs, current and prospective support conditions make
imperative a systematic and stringent review of all existing degree major
programs which show low degree production and are thus likely to be high
cost. I am therefore sending you attached a list of those bachelor's
degree major programs currently existing at your college which were approved
for implementation prior to the 1967-68 academic year but produced fewer
than 10 degrees in 1969-70, and also those master's degree major programs
approved for implementation prior to the 1967-68 academic year but producing
less than 5 degrees in 1969-70. The list does not include programs
which the colleges are already phasing
out, although most of those do fall into the categories identified
above. This is to request that you
undertake immediately a performance review of each program so identified
in the attached chart and submit with your proposed revision of the Academic
Master Plan a detailed explanation as to why the respective low-degree-production
program should not be phased out on your campus, or" consolidated with
other existing programs, or on what grounds it should be retained.
Specifically,
any undergraduate or graduate degree programs which are currently producing
less than the minimal number of degrees per year indicated above may qualify
for retention if:
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There
is evidence in terms of increasing numbers of students enrolled in
the major that the production of degrees is soon to increase considerably;
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There
is evidence that low degree production in 1969-70 represents a temporary
fluctuation rather than a downward trend;
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The program
requires no courses for the major which are not also required for
some other viable major or for fulfillment of General Education requirements;
or
-
The program
is a unique one not available to students at other State Colleges
and is essential for the State Colleges to offer.
Also,
following up on the preliminary discussion at the most recent meetings
of the Deans of Academic Planning and the Vice Presidents for Academic
Affairs, this is to request that you establish a formal performance review
procedure for all existing degree programs on your campus, in order to
assess periodically both the quantitative and qualitative viability of
each undergraduate and graduate program in the total context of your offerings.
Please inform this office of any policies, procedures,
and criteria developed on your campus for this purpose.
Review
of existing degrees and degree terminologies has of course long been part
of the annual Academic Master Planning process. We must now recognize
the performance review of all ongoing
programs as a major planning function at the campus and system levels.
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