UT Austin students select a specific major when they apply to the university. Current applicants are finding their options curtailed. The University of Texas at Austin will eliminate four majors—African and African diaspora studies; Mexican American and Latina/o studies; women’s and gender studies; and race, indigeneity and migration—as the university continues to overhaul its undergraduate curriculum and whittle down its ethnic and gender studies programs.
Faculty members in the newly consolidated Social and Culture Analysis Department, which housed those majors, say they received no explanation as to why they are being cut, but some consider the move part of an ongoing effort to gradually gut the department and censor students’ learning. Danielle Clealand, interim chair of the SCA department, told faculty members on Tuesday that the provost’s office “rejected our proposal to keep our majors,” according to an email shared with _Inside Higher Ed_. Interim Dean of the College of Liberal Arts Dan Brinks suggested the department instead create an “ethnic studies major with tracks or a SCA major with tracks,” Clealand wrote.
The urban studies and American studies majors, which also fall under the SCA umbrella, will remain, though faculty are confused as to whether American studies is accepting new students at this time. UT Austin students apply to a specific major at the university, and _The Austin-American Statesman_ reported Thursday that students currently applying to UT for next fall do not see an option to add ethnic studies or gender studies as a primary or secondary major. American studies is also missing, the _Statesman_ reported.
In an emailed statement to _Inside Higher Ed_ on Thursday, university spokesperson Mike Rosen said that the American studies and urban studies majors remain intact. So, as you might expect, those majors have been removed from the University’s admissions applications to avoid new students enrolling in majors that are changing,” Rosen wrote. The Department is encouraged to develop a new degree proposal that represents its combined academic interests.
American Studies and Urban Studies majors remain.” Faculty members in the SCA department came up with a new major over the summer that would replace the race, indigeneity and migration major, but they are currently re-evaluating it in light of the recent eliminations. Julie Minich, who teaches literature and Mexican American and Latina/o studies, said she was not surprised the majors were rejected but “was still shocked.” “We had all been fearing it, but it just seemed so beyond the pale,” Minich said. When she and her colleagues learned in February that their various departments were being folded into one, they were told “that consolidation would be a way for us to continue doing the teaching and research we’ve always done,” Gutterman said.
But since then, the university has taken several more steps to minimize the programs and to make it easier to shutter them entirely. In May, the University of Texas system established that presidents could bypass typical review procedures and close academic programs in “extraordinary circumstances” that necessitate “accelerated program closure due to regulatory requirements.” The new rules also allow a president to eliminate faculty positions for “bona fide academic reasons,” which include “poor program quality or effectiveness, misalignment with the institution’s mission, failure to meet student or societal needs, low enrollment and demand, and redundancy with other existing more effective programs.” At the time, faculty feared the policy changes would allow universities to shutter departments for political reasons. Three months later, UT Austin unveiled its new core curriculum, which booted several SCA classes from the core, Gutterman said.
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