DES MOINES, Iowa — Drake University's Board of Trustees on Monday approved the Faculty Senate's vote to eliminate three programs: the East Asian Studies minor, Religion major and the Evidence-Based Health Care graduate certificate.
The University will no longer offer the three programs, which have a total of 14 students. Each student will have a "teach-out" plan, allowing students currently enrolled to finish the programs at Drake and on time.
Drake University President Marty Martin said the goal of these cuts are to balance the operating budget by fiscal year 2026 (July 2025).
"... since November 2023, we have worked collaboratively—faculty governance, administration, deans, and the Drake Board of Trustees—to review our academic offerings and identify areas where we can strengthen programs and better align the academic portfolio with student demand and workforce needs while staying true to our mission," he said in a statement.
The criteria that Drake used to evaluate each program was developed by the Faculty Senate Budget Committee and unanimously approved by the Faculty Senate in January. The Faculty Senate voted on the final program cut recommendations earlier in April.
The list of majors, minors and graduate certificates originally proposed began at 13, this final decision will only cut three of those.
The program coordinator for East Asian Studies, Macy McCarthy, said that although she is disappointed in seeing the minor cut, she understands why and is proud of the faculty collaboration.
"We were able to come together in so many important ways over the last few months, to think through how to really make Drake the strongest institution moving forward," McCarthy said.
Professor of Philosophy Director, Tim Knepper, told Local 5 that they volunteered weeks ago to scrap the Religion major in order to save the Religion minor.
Knepper added that their Religion majors have been down, and the cut to the Religion major was agreed to by the Provost and Dean two weeks ago.
"We will have the opportunity to design a minor that is rich in interfaith engagement, which is a real strength of the faculty and interest of the students," Knepper said.
The original list of proposed cuts included:
Undergraduate Majors:
Anthropology/Sociology
Astronomy
Physics
Religion
Rhetoric
Health Care Administration
Undergraduate Minors:
Anthropology
Religion
Rhetoric
East Asian Studies
Graduate Majors:
Master of Accountancy
Master of Public Administration
Graduate Certificate
Evidence-based Health Care
