Rhode Island College has announced its intention to suspend 20 degree programs as of this fall, including Gender and Women’s Studies, Latin American Studies, and education and masters level degrees in Art, Early Childhood Education and Music. Here to talk more about the potential implications of the cuts is Dr. Leslie Schuster, professor of History at Rhode Island College. We’re also joined by Danielle Hurowitz, a Gender Studies major at Rhode Island College.
TRANSCRIPT:
This transcript was edited for length and clarity.
James Baumgartner: Leslie, what majors are being eliminated?
Leslie Schuster: There are 20 majors that are being eliminated primarily in arts and sciences, Gender and Women’s Studies, Global Studies, Art History major, and then there are some in the Feinstein School of Education, including technology, education, and some of the languages.
Baumgartner: A question for both of you. What’s your general response to these cuts?
Schuster: I have many responses. My first response is that this really limits the opportunities for Rhode Island College students and for Rhode Island students, period. I mean, students may not want to come in being a Global Studies major or a Gender and Women’s Studies major, or an Art History major, but they want to be in a place where those issues and concepts are being discussed, where there’s a place for that to happen. Those programs should not be only for the elite institutions that can afford those. I think it’s very narrow-minded. It sort of assumes that our students shouldn’t have or don’t have the opportunity to expand their knowledge about the world.
Baumgartner: Danielle, how about you?
Danielle Hurowitz: I think it’s really disheartening to see. I know there are similar cuts happening at other colleges. These are just really important programs, not just for people majoring in them, but for other people taking them, taking those classes. It’s important to have these available. You learn a lot about culture, about the way society works. It really opens people’s minds in a lot of these. Languages, for example, is about communication as much as it is learning about those cultures. And these just aren’t things that we should be cutting. Students should have access to this education.
Baumgartner: Leslie, you’re the director of the Gender and Women’s Studies program, which is being cut. What is RIC losing with the elimination of this program and some of the others like it?
Schuster: Well, the major is being cut. The minors are being preserved, so there are students who are continuing in the minors. In fact, I’ve had a bump in the number of students who have registered in the minors recently.
Employment data shows that there are jobs for Gender and Women’s Studies majors. I think the other thing that we’re losing is an opportunity for students to see the world through different perspectives. Many of these programs, or at least Global Studies, also, teaches students to the liberal arts, right? It’s an interdisciplinary program that gives students a broad view of the world, and I think to eliminate them is, I think, just a huge mistake.
Baumgartner: Danielle, you’re a student in the Gender Studies program. What are your plans going forward now that this major is being cut?
Hurowitz: Well, I’m a senior this year, so I will still be able to graduate under this major, but I don’t think it’s a consolation that I still get my degree. I’ve been hearing more people interested in it in incoming students and I just think it’d be really wonderful to have more people in those classes and more discussions.
Baumgartner: Danielle, what do you feel you’ve gotten from the program?
Hurowitz: It’s hard to condense it. I really just feel like we’ve touched on so many subjects and I just have such a better understanding of so many things that I don’t experience. So as much as it is called Gender Studies, we also look at issues with racism or ableism, and those aren’t necessarily things that I’ve experienced, but it just teaches so much empathy and so much understanding that I just wouldn’t get without these classes.
Baumgartner: Danielle, do you think the campus community should have been involved in the discussions that led to these cuts?
Hurowitz: I definitely think that they should have been. I think the decision wasn’t representative of how the students feel. Once this decision got made, there was so much pushback and disagreement from the students, which maybe is why they didn’t involve the students, but as we’re the ones taking the classes and we’re the ones at the school, we really should have been consulted.
Baumgartner: Have you heard from other students? What are you hearing from other students about the cuts, both in the Gender Studies program and across RIC generally?
Hurowitz: I’m hearing a lot of upset people who are already in the programs and wanting to see those programs grow, but also from incoming students who aren’t sure if they get to study what they are coming to RIC to study anymore because it was such a sudden decision after they were already accepted. I think it’s really upsetting for anyone involved already in the programs, people wanting to study them as upcoming students, people who want to add a double major.
Baumgartner: Leslie, of the 20 majors that are being cut, some of them have had few or no degree completions in recent years. Does it make sense to offer these concentrations that so few students actually major in?
Schuster: Yes, I think it does. I don’t know that we should be valuing education based on how many students graduate, right? Gender and Women’s Studies has had less than 11 graduates in the last few years. That’s the number that pegged us for this review. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a valuable academic study, an academic discipline for students. The same with Global Studies. I don’t wanna leave that out. Global Studies in this day and age, you would think that Global Studies is so critical to our students to understand what goes on and how to view other countries and other worlds and other cultures. So these decisions just seem very, very limiting. The decision to base it on numbers seems really inappropriate in higher ed.
Baumgartner: Danielle, a rally was held at the State House last month to protest these program cuts. How’d that go?
Hurowitz: I think it went well. We had a good number of students turn out and we had some really great speeches, but it also drew a lot of attention. So I think it really helped spread the news and get more people aware of what’s going on.
Baumgartner: Does RIC risk losing prospective students who choose to go somewhere else because of this?
Schuster: It’s a possibility. I have heard that a couple students in a particular major, once they heard it was canceled, we’re going to go elsewhere. But our enrollment is up, which is fabulous. We are now offering students the Hope Scholarship. So that’s a huge draw for students and for good reason. So I honestly don’t know if it will limit the number of applications.
Baumgartner: Is there any way to save these programs at this point?
Schuster: I’m not sure. The administration has offered those of us with suspended programs the opportunity to respond, but those meetings are still in process. President Warner did indicate at one time that lists of programs that were identified for elimination would be sent to the chair of the undergraduate curriculum committee, which has purview over curricula. That never happened. He also indicated at one point that faculty committees would have an opportunity to weigh in and that never happened either. So right now the curriculum committee is protesting because they argue that it is shared governance and their purview. At the last meeting, the provost agreed that suspending enrollment needs to go through the undergraduate curriculum council, which is puzzling to me. So honestly, I don’t know. I really, really hope so.
Baumgartner: Some opponents of these program cuts say it’s part of a broader trend in higher education to cut liberal arts programs. Do you see it that way?
Schuster: It’s hard to see it any other way. There is a stress, unfortunately, on workforce programs, but all the data shows us that students who are educated broadly in liberal arts, in the humanities, have writing and thinking and critical analysis skills, and that is what the world needs.
Baumgartner: I’ve been speaking with Dr. Leslie Schuster, professor of history at Rhode Island College, and Danielle Hurowitz, a Gender Studies major at Rhode Island College. Professor Schuster, Danielle, thanks so much for your time.
Schuster: Thanks so very much.
Hurowitz: Thank you.
