University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Chancellor Bernie Patterson announced this week that a proposal to eliminate nearly a half-dozen program offerings as part of a campus-wide restructuring has been thrown out. Instead, the school will focus on expanding two and four-year degree options on all three of its regional campuses and programs that had been proposed for elimination will be re-tooled. "Our faculty, staff, and have been engaged- working together and developing alternatives," said Patterson. "I have never been more proud of our people."
Part of the proposal includes the addition of Associate degrees in applied finance, health sciences, information science, environmental science and management, human services, leadership, and project management on the Wausau and Marshfield campuses. Bachelor’s degrees in social work and business administration will also be offered along with the new MBA program. New programs coming to the main campus in Stevens Point include Bachelor's degrees in finance, marketing, and management. A Doctorate in Physical Therapy is also in the works.
Programs such as German, French, GeoSciences, and History that were previously proposed for elimination will now be "re-tooled" with help from others in the UW system, according to Patterson. The four-pronged plan also includes further integration of liberal arts programs and more collaboration. Patterson says the financial impact of the plan hasn't been calculated, but he did credit a reduction in the number of employees on campus to help tip the scales of the budget. "It's helped significantly, but we continue to look for other ways to address the budget issues including the development of these new programs."
He adds that balancing the University's budget will be a continued challenge. Those programs, particularly the two-year offerings, are designed to help increase the pool of potential students for the University. Patterson says they simply can't keep relying on the traditional student who have recently graduated from High School. "We have to reach out to Veterans, to individuals who have some college but didn't finish. Individuals who are looking to get ahead at work. All of those are potential students that we are reaching out to."
The road to get to Wednesday's announcement was anything but straight. Numerous committees and brainstorming groups were formed following outcries and students protests after the Point Forward plan was announced in the spring of 2018.
In late November of 2018, a group of current and former UWSP faculty and instructors signed a letter of no confidence in Chancellor Patterson and Provost Greg Summers. They claimed mismanagement and a lack of transparency in the Point Forward negotiations after a scaled-back version of the plan was released, taking the number of course eliminations from 12 to 6. Patterson said Wednesday's announcement was the result of many hours of "listening and learning" after the plan was announced. He acknowledged that the discussions were difficult at times, but says he thinks they helped the University get to the right place. "It has worked well, has it tested us? It certainly has. But, it has served us well, and I could not be more proud of the faculty and staff on this campus and the way they rallied to make the changes that we need to make to continue to be relevant to those that we serve. "Has it been painful at times? For sure. It has tested our governance process, but we have emerged stronger. We've done a lot of hard work. Our faculty, staff, and community have been engaged. We have listened, and we have learned," he added.
