Marietta College plans to discontinue 10 academic programs
The decision is not final until Marietta College president Dr. Margaret Drugovich asks the Board of Trustees to formally approve the plan in October.
MARIETTA, Ohio (WTAP) - Marietta College emailed students to inform them of a plan to phase out 10 academic programs.
According to the email obtained by WTAP, the programs recommended to be discontinued are:
Asian Studies
Athletic Training (master’s)
Environmental Engineering
ESL & Linguistics
Global Leadership
Land & Energy Management
Music Education
Music Therapy
Spanish
Vocal Performance
Marietta College’s president, provost and curriculum committee support the Academic Program Evaluation Task Force’s recommendation to phase out the programs.
If approved, the decision would affect five percent of the student population with nearly two percent of students being unable to complete their declared major, according to Tom Perry, Marietta’s Vice President for Communication & Brand Management.
Senior music therapy major Emma Searing shared their reaction to the news.
“We didn’t have any prenotion this was coming. It’s really hit the underclassmen hard because it affects them most. Juniors and Seniors should be able to finish out their degrees, but freshmen and sophomores are basically told to transfer or change their degree. A lot of them are questioning why they were told to come here or allowed to come here under these degrees if they knew there was a chance they were being cut.”
Since the announcement, Searing said students are working to prevent the decision from becoming final.
“Some of our emotions dissipated once we started talking about what we can do. That’s where fliers and the ideas for the petition came out. I’m very proud of our underclassmen because they have those fliers out almost as soon as we got the news, I’m very surprised with how quickly they reacted.”
The decision is not final until Marietta College’s president Dr. Margaret Drugovich asks the Board of Trustees to formally approve the plan in October.
We talked with the college interim president to learn more about the process and what options are available for students.
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