photo by: Stephan Bisaha /Kansas News Service

WICHITA — As the COVID-19 crisis causes big financial shortfalls at Kansas’ public universities, departments with the majors that draw the fewest students find themselves in existential peril — forced to justify themselves either as money makers or as the reasons to take a college degree seriously.

The Kansas Board of Regents had eyed cutting entire programs before the economic crisis that came with the pandemic. But now, with schools spending extra money to implement COVID-19 safety measures for their campuses and more students choosing to avoid college entirely, the cost-cutting discussion has taken on new urgency.

The discussion puts a bullseye on 60 programs scattered across public universities in the state. While they typically offer classes that nearly all students need to graduate, they also draw the fewest students to pursue their majors — in history, mathematics and other staple subjects.

That’s partly why making those cuts isn’t so simple. Schools have to weigh the needs of their students against the increasingly dire financial situation. And just because few students major in a program, it doesn’t mean it isn’t essential for a university.

Must-have classes

The majors getting a hard look aren’t obscure or outdated programs like secretarial science (Fort Hays State University is already phasing that one out).

Instead, they’re subjects that just about everyone at the university has to take some classes in as part of their general education requirements — subjects such as math, history, chemistry and biology. But while nearly everyone has to take the entry-level classes in these subjects, few students end up majoring in them.

Of the 60 majors the Regents are reviewing, 34 are listed as supporting general education.

Universities would still need to find a way to offer things like introductory courses in U.S. history. That might mean dumping the tenured professor who’s written the textbook and having an adjunct teach the class at a fraction of the cost.And many of those adjuncts are already overworked and underpaid.

If the programs go away, students could have some jury-rigged options, like taking online classes from another school in Kansas. For example, if Emporia State University’s chemistry major were to disappear, and its general education courses went with it, those students could be allowed to take an online version from Kansas State University.

Rich Sleezer, the chair of Emporia State’s Department of Physical Sciences, opposes that idea. Beyond the fact that his programs would be cut, he argues it would hurt Emporia State students interested in medical school or other scientific fields. Online chemistry classes might do in a pandemic, but Sleezer said that for students interested in a career in the sciences, those classes need to happen in person.

“Medical schools do not want somebody who had an online chemistry lab,” Sleezer said. “They want us to do those face to face in the laboratory.”

Not guaranteed savings

Even those programs that don’t support general education won’t be so easy to cut. That’s because the same professors who would be tossed out with the major are teaching other, more popular majors too.

A professor teaching a senior-level course in chemistry might also be teaching a needed upper-level class for biochemistry and forensic science graduate students. In many cases, a major and the professors teaching it can’t be cut without neutering another major.

Sleezer said about five years ago he had to cut a physical sciences major. But because there weren’t any professors who only taught for that specific program, no one was let go.

“It didn’t save a dime,” Sleezer said. “There were no resources whatsoever devoted to that and that alone.”

Not every program is so intertwined with others that there wouldn’t be any savings from losing it. And faculty make up the biggest expense for colleges. That makes it hard to save money without talking about axing professors.

But getting rid of faculty also has some of the biggest impacts on how strong classes are.

“You can’t have these conversations about cost and not have similar conversations about what does this do to quality,” said Justin Ortagus, director of the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Florida.

The Regents began looking at the low-enrollment programs before the coronavirus arrived in Kansas. Universities were already getting less financial support from taxpayers than in the past, and they were also battling increased competition from less-expensive education options like tech schools But after the virus shut down campuses, the Regents had extra incentive to find places to cut.

“The economic realities are pretty harsh,” said Shelly Kiblinger, a member of the Kansas Board of Regents. “We (need) to make some of those very hard decisions.”

What’s best for students

Those low-enrollment programs aren’t just getting scrutinized for savings. Kiblinger said they’re being evaluated to see whether they still meet student needs — college kids might be staying away because they don’t see a future with a history degree. That might mean the university should retool the program or reconsider why it’s offered at all.

“If we identify programs that really aren’t meeting any need, it would be wrong for us to continue to offer such programs without really asking ourselves what purpose are those serving,” Kiblinger said.

And losing those programs to save money and keep tuition low — or at least keep it from rising any higher — could benefit all students.

That is, unless you’re planning on being a political science major like Emporia State junior Brayden Soper. His program produces about seven graduates a year.

Soper would still be able to get his degree if Emporia State cut political science, because programs usually phase out gradually instead of ending suddenly. But a high schooler interested in that major would no longer have Emporia State as an option. And choosing to study at a bigger program instead, like the one at the University of Kansas, might mean paying $2,000 more per semester.

“For a lot of students, that would just completely be a deal-breaker,” Soper said.

Plus, that small program size isn’t a problem for Soper — it’s a selling point. He prefers being in a major where he knows all the other students and professors.

“We get to get really comfortable with each other and have deep discussions,” Soper said. “I may not necessarily get that as much at one of the larger universities.”

— The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio.