Monday evening, WSU students received an emailed letter from President Bard Mortensen detailing the school’s strategic reallocation plan and proposed cuts based on recently passed legislation.

“These changes are part of a larger statewide effort that all universities are implementing due to recent legislation, House Bill 265, which requires all public universities in Utah to review and realign how we use our funding to best support students and meet workforce needs,” the letter reads. “We’ve taken this responsibility seriously, with input from faculty, staff, and leadership across campus.”

The letter continues that some programs will be phased out or consolidated, but any students that are currently enrolled in those programs will be able to finish them or have the option of switching to another program.

According to Mortensen’s letter, the following programs would be cut under the plan as it stands:

Majors

• Applied environmental geosciences.
• Applied physics (bachelor of science).
• Art education (bachelor of arts).
• Computer science teaching.
• Construction management (BS) — facilities emphasis only.
• Electronic engineering technology.
• English — professional and technical writing emphasis only.
• French for the professions (BA).
• French translation in business and industry.
• Geography (BA) — BS will still be offered.
• German (BA).
• German for the professions (BA).
• Mathematics (to be combined with applied mathematics).
• MSRT (respiratory therapy master’s).
• Physical education (nonteaching).
• Physical science (associate of applied science).
• Workplace communication and writing (associate of arts/associate of science).

Certificates

• Biotechnician.
• Ethics.
• Facilities management.
• Forensic science fundamentals.
• Field botany.
• Jazz studies.
• Music entrepreneurship.

Minors

• Ethnic studies.
• French for the professions.
• German for the professions.
• Linguistics.
• Public administration.
• Queer studies.
• Spanish for the professions.
• Women and gender studies.

The letter further details the following program consolidations:

• “Dance and Theatre will merge into one program;
• “Music will reduce its emphases to focus on Pedagogy and Performance;
• “Economics will consolidate its six majors into four;
• “Geography will go from seven tracks to four;
• “Anthropology, Geography, and Sociology will become one department;
• “Elementary and Special Education will become one unified program;
• “Manufacturing Systems Engineering will shift into Mechanical or Manufacturing Engineering;
• “Reduce the number of emphases in communication.”

Additionally:

“Teaching majors are also being restructured into broader categories to simplify licensing and support collaboration across content areas:

• “A new Secondary Science Education major will include Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Physical Science, and Earth Science;
• “A revised Social Science Education major will add History, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, and Geography;
• “A new World Languages Education major will include Spanish, French, and German.”

Bryan Magaña, public relations director at WSU, told the Standard-Examiner on Tuesday that the strategic reallocation plan has not been finalized at this time.

“This plan is indeed preliminary, as both the Utah System of Higher Education and legislative committees will need to review and approve it,” he said. “Until then, there’s time to develop and discuss the plan.”

According to materials provided to the Standard-Examiner, $6,663,958 would ultimately be cut as part of the program, including 10 staff positions, 28 salaried faculty lines and 11 administrative positions. WSU’s strategic reallocation plan is expected to be considered by the Utah System of Higher Education next month.

Magaña said that the cuts will not impact most students, stating some of these programs didn’t even have participating students.

“Weber State is home to over 32,000 students. Eliminating these programs would impact just over 200, and we’re confident those students will still be able to finish the degrees they’ve worked so hard to earn,” he said. “Thankfully, we’ll have time to ‘teach out’ the programs. We want to see them through to graduation, so we’ll do everything we can to make that happen. For additional context, about a third of the impacted programs had no students enrolled at the beginning of the school year. Eight of the programs had one to five students enrolled.”

He said that the decisions have been discussed at length since the legislative session began.

“President Mortensen has been diligent in seeking input throughout this process,” Magaña said. “Early in the legislative session, he assembled the H.B. 265 committee, which includes faculty, staff and student representation. He has also worked closely with deans of each college, who offered their recommendations. The university has held several town halls for faculty and staff and hosted discussions with students who had questions. WSU also sent out communications to both employees and students with opportunities to provide feedback throughout the process.”

He added this included an event that was advertised in the letter from Mortensen, set for Tuesday.

“We hosted a ‘Donuts and Discussion’ today where students met with one of our vice presidents to ask more questions and express their opinions,” Magaña said. “Students showed up with a surprising variety of outlooks, some in support of the changes and others disheartened. Weber State is a large community, and like most communities, opinions run the gamut. Faculty and staff were given the opportunity to submit their feedback via survey. Leaders are open to ongoing conversations about impacted programs and how we can best support students and faculty in those areas.”

Magaña said there will ultimately be opportunities to reassess decisions as time goes on.

“H.B. 265 works on a three-year timeline, so there’ll be opportunities to make adjustments based on what we learn through the process,” he said.

He added that this is ultimately an opportunity to assess the university’s future.

“Weber State has been part of this community since 1889, so we’ve seen a lot of change,” he said. “Responding to H.B. 265 has involved a lot of difficult decisions, but it’s giving us a chance to self-assess and envision ourselves 10, 20, another 136 years down the road, and how we’re going to best serve our students and the state of Utah.”