In a special general faculty meeting held on Friday, March 31, Saint Xavier University faculty voted by a 90% margin to reject the administration’s proposal to eliminate majors in English, History, Sociology, and Spanish.
The meeting was requested by 10 members of the faculty on March 20 after an Academic Restructuring document was submitted by the provost, Saib Othman, Ph.D., on March 14. The Xavierite was invited to attend the special meeting.
Othman and university Deans were invited to the meeting, none attended.
The document, obtained from Angelo Bonadonna, Ph.D., states the Spanish, History, English, and Sociology programs were going to “be examined and recommendations will be presented” to the faculty senate regarding their possible eliminations. Othman explicitly recommended the university “eliminate the Spanish major and retain Spanish in the Professions and Spanish Secondary Education.”
Also indicated by the provost, Sociology enrollment declined in the State of Illinois between 2017 and 2021. In 2017, Illinois had 2,409 Sociology students and was down to 1,769 by 2021, a seven percent decline.
Since March 31, official curriculum change proposals have been submitted for English, History, and Spanish, but not Sociology.
When asked, the university did not indicate why a Sociology proposal was not submitted.
Othman cites in the document that Saint Xavier’s mission is to “educate for competence, character, and career success by delivering high-quality programs,” and the reallocation of resources this restructuring offers brings forth the best opportunities for students.
In an official statement, Saint Xavier said “the University will continue conducting routine evaluations on all majors and minors to ensure relevance and educational quality.”
At the meeting, several faculty members spoke about their concerns regarding the program eliminations which included presentations from Matthew Costello, Ph.D., Mary Beth Tegan, Ph.D., and Steven Taylor, Ph.D, among others.
Costello’s perspective on the upcoming changes to the university surrounded revenue loss the eliminations will bring, how it may be a difficult task to recoup them, and the issue of efficiencies within the context of the Saint Xavier University mission.
While expressing his concerns over the plan to cut English, History, Spanish, and (at the time) Sociology, Costello acknowledged that these programs do not draw as many students as they have previously, saying “there’s no question about it” that they are in a decline.
The Academic Restructuring document shows between Fall 2020 and Fall 2022, students in English declined from 20 to 16, Sociology from 28 to 20, Spanish from seven to four, and History increased from nine to 14. The cause of the decline was not examined.
While History grew by 56%, none of the other majors up for elimination had a decline in enrollment greater than 43%. Sociology and English did not eclipse 30%.
Despite the decline in enrollment in these majors over the past five years, Costello does not believe the university has properly examined the revenue concerns that will come with the eliminations.
Costello came to his conclusions based on data from AP Analytics (2021-22), the cost of undergraduate tuition, an average of 30 credit hours per school year, and the 54 students in these four programs. He estimates Saint Xavier will lose over $500 thousand dollars in net revenue.
“These program eliminations…seem to be proposed with no consideration for their impact on university finances, and no argument about how we’re going to get back the revenue that we lose,” Costello said.
Saint Xavier says the elimination of these programs is “part of a broad vision to remain the most affordable Catholic University in Illinois,” but did not share any specific plans as to how lost revenue may be made up.
Though faculty members are not just concerned about the quantitative impacts the eliminations will bring, but also the qualitative repercussions.
Tegan, Professor of Language and Literature, mentioned that the elimination of core academic disciplines as majors conflicts with SXU’s mission to “Educate Persons,” and that a prospective student would be wrong to presume Saint Xavier is “a place that invests in those academic programs” that particularly help students “develop a rich, intellectual and inner life.”
Additionally, she said a prospective student thinking of majoring in Spanish or History at SXU would not be looking at a university that “has made a commitment to its faculty.”
Noted in her presentation, since 2016-17, tenure or tenure-track faculty lines at Saint Xavier have declined by 47% (137 to 73) while non-tenure track positions have grown by 44% (32 to 46). The reduction in numbers also forces the institution to rely more on adjunct faculty. The issue with this, as said by several faculty members, is that a larger number of adjunct faculty would not be as committed to students because they are overworked and underpaid.
Tegan cited the university mission statement several times, once again to highlight the section “To Think Critically”, which says The Sisters of Mercy, who designed the original curriculum, “grounded the academic program in the liberal arts and sciences.”
In her final remarks, Tegan called upon faculty “to have an informed discussion about SXU’s identity before this institution is radically, and irrevocably, altered.”
Othman continues to hold that the academic changes “don’t detract from the richness and breadth of SXU’s educational experience. Ultimately, such changes will better integrate the liberal arts within the core curriculum to effectively prepare students for successful careers and meaningful lives upon graduation from SXU.”
Faculty and students alike have raised issues with the lack of communication from the administration concerning the elimination of majors. As noted in this week’s news article, “Saint Xavier University Eliminates Four Majors,”, the whole student body has not yet been officially informed about the academic restructuring or program eliminations.
Taylor, Assistant Professor and Chair of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, created a Google Survey for his Criminal Justice students to better understand their opinions and perspectives on these changes.
The survey was intended to be shared with only Criminal Justice students, but students took the liberty of distributing the survey to others outside of Taylor’s classes to provide them the opportunity to offer feedback on this university wide change.
With over 260 responses, the survey showed that 98.5% of respondents believe that students should have been given a say whether or not the programs should be cut.
Additionally, 85.9% of students said the university should definitely not eliminate the programs, with only a combined 2.2% of respondents saying elimination is a good option.
67.6% of responses show current students would neither recommend Saint Xavier to friends or family nor would they have attended the institution if these programs were not offered. It should be noted that 59% of the respondents are not majoring in the programs that are up for elimination.
Lastly, 88.2% of the respondents indicated that they believed the elimination of these programs will affect the quality of the education they receive at Saint Xavier.
SXU noted that “Academic Affairs will continue to engage members of the community and leverage the shared governance structure about future plans involving programming,” including the Student Government Association (SGA).