HELENA – Carroll College is considering eliminating four majors, and restructuring three others, President John Cech told MTN today.
He will be making those recommendations to the Board of Trustees at their February 21st meeting.
The recommended changes are part of a program prioritization, which could also include phasing out or reassigning some faculty members.
“As we make decisions to realign some of our resources, we are very sorry that there may be some people whose positions will be phased out,” said Cech.
“The planning that we’ve been doing is looking at realigning some of the resources that we have, which involves some of our own human capital, making some tough decisions, but very important decisions, that are going to help us be a beacon to the northwest,” he said.
The Board of Trustees will have the final say after their meeting in February.
Cech did not say which majors could be eliminated, but he said the four they are considering have a total of 26 students. Those students are guaranteed to graduate with their current majors.
In addition to the majors, there are plans to discontinue 11 minors, three certificates and one associate degree. The secondary education major could also be restructured into fewer options.
There are currently about 1,350 students enrolled at Carroll, Cech said.
The process to develop the recommendations began in August, Cech said, and involved gathering reports from around 200 people across campus representing 177 programs.
Thursday, he held forums to deliver the recommendations. The faculty curriculum committee will deliberate until February 14th.
Cech said the potential changes align with the school’s future goals, including balancing the school’s budget.
There are other changes in the works, as well.
Cech hopes Carroll will implement a School of Professional and Graduate Studies by this fall. He said he also plans to ask the new Bishop of Helena to invite an Order of Sisters to live and work at Carroll, as well as redesign O’Connell Hall to become a one-stop student commons.
He said as Carroll looks to the future, healthcare will be a major focus area for the school.
“Within three years, we discussed we will be in candidacy status for either a Physician’s Assistant program or a nurse practitioner program, which are critical for meeting the healthcare needs,” he said.
Cech told MTN he will meet with the Associated Students of Carroll College Thursday night and will be holding other meetings on campus in the coming weeks to discuss his recommendations.
