The administration at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point recently issued a statement detailing the plan, which still must be approved by a campus governance committee as well as the University of Wisconsin system's chancellor and Board of Regents.

It said that the school faces a $US4.5 million ($5.8 million) deficit over two years because declining enrollment has led to lower tuition revenue, and proposes adding or expanding 16 programs in areas "with high-demand career paths as a way to maintain and increase enrollment." Last fall, the school saw an enrollment decrease of 5.4 per cent from the year before. That was on top of a 6.8 per cent drop the previous year.

"To fund this future investment, resources would be shifted from programs with lower enrollment, primarily in the traditional humanities and social sciences," the school statement says. "Although some majors are proposed to be eliminated, courses would continue to be taught in these fields, and minors or certificates will be offered."

Programs that would be expanded, which "have demonstrated value and demand in the region," include marketing, management, graphic design, fire science and computer information systems.

The student newspaper, the Pointer, quoted Samantha Stein, a 2017 graduate, as opposing the plan. Stein, who earned a bachelor's degree in biology and had a minor in biomedical writing through the English department, said:

"The shift away from the humanities and from the opening of one's mind to other cultures, languages, the arts, political science and so much more is one that universities will not return from, and we are giving up what a college education is all about if we do this."

Inside Higher Education quoted Michael Williams, chair of English at Stevens Point, as saying, "Well, you can imagine the mood in the College of Letters and Science, which houses the humanities."

The Republican-dominated legislature in Wisconsin weakened tenure in 2015, removing it from state law. Lawmakers also changed the traditional power-sharing arrangement at public universities that had long given students, faculty and staff an important role in governance, instead giving more power to administrators and the governor-appointed Regents. The Regents then set new policies that made it easier for public universities to lay off tenured faculty.

Washington Post