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Elizabethtown College has a robust and ever-evolving curriculum. The Etownian recently reported the addition of several new academic programs: exercise science, sports marketing, public health and physician’s assistant (PA) programs. The change in academic programs — whether it be the addition or removal of programming — has been a timely, recurring topic in recent Etown news. So how exactly does the process work for adding and evaluating academic programs at the College?
At the Thursday, Feb. 6 Student Senate meeting, President Cecilia McCormick stated that many factors must be taken into account when considering the implementation or the phasing out of academic programs, such as these programs’ needed resources and their importance to the College’s mission.
The bodies on campus that handle academic programming are the Resources and Strategic Planning Committee (RSPC), the Academic Council and Faculty Assembly. The RPSC contains a mix of representatives from faculty, staff and Student Senate, and its mission is to work alongside the senior staff on academic programming, residential renewal and other issues. In terms of the RSPC’s involvement with programming, its strategic plan listed on the Etown website says that the committee will “develop new majors based on research that identifies programs with high growth potential based on market demands/needs, student interest and internal strengths.”
According to chair of the Academic Council and associate professor of Japanese and Asian Studies Dr. Mahua Bhattacharya, the RSPC has recently taken on more responsibility in dealing with programming. Previously, if a faculty member wanted to introduce a new program, they would send their idea to Academic Council. From there, the Academic Council would collaborate with Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Dr. Betty Rider to see if the College has the available resources and budget for the program.
“If it was something the College felt was essential, [Rider] would normally say, ‘Yeah, sure,’” Bhattacharya said.
But with the RSPC, the process will change. Bhattacharya said that all new programs will be sent to the RSPC first, and that the committee will evaluate the resources and decide if the program is viable. With this, Bhattacharya said the Academic Council has become “a purely academic body” that does not have to handle managing resources and making decisions from that angle.
“Now we’re looking only at the academic merit of these programs,” Bhattacharya said. She also said that the RSPC taking on the role of resource-managing has made those on the Academic Council’s lives easier, since most faculty are not well-versed in how to handle a budget on as large a scale as a college’s. The Academic Council now evaluates the proposed programs based on its contents and quality. After the Academic Council, the program then goes to the Faculty Assembly.
The RSPC simplifies the Academic Council’s involvement in implementing and reviewing new programs, which is an advantage of this new process. One downside to this system, however, is how long it might take to pass a program. The PA program took about a year to be put into motion, according to Bhattacharya. However, Bhattacharya also said that if the administration wants to quickly put out a new program, they are willing to implement it without the Academic Council heavily weighing the needed resources and budgeting. Otherwise, a program might take a while for it to be reviewed by the RSPC and the Academic Council.
The Academic Council has many other responsibilities on campus, such as interpreting and recommending new policy. According to Bhattacharya, the decisions the Academic Council makes have campus-wide implications. All of the responsibilities of the Academic Council can be seen in the faculty handbook, found at https://www.etown.edu/offices/human-resources/forms-resources/handbooks.aspx. Additionally, the RSPC’s strategic plan can be found at https://www.etown.edu/envision2020/.
