JACKSON-Higher Education Commissioner Tom Layzell says Mississippi’s eight public universities can expect to see more cuts in academic programs with low enrollment. Earlier this year, the state College Board voted to phase out 10 graduate programs at Mississippi State University, the University of Southern Mississippi, the University of Mississippi and the University of Mississippi Medical Center because of a lack of enrollment.
Twelve academic units at the state’s eight public universities and 28 doctorate programs at Delta State University, Jackson State University, MSU, USM and Ole Miss were placed on three years probation.
The state College Board also suspended five academic programs three at Delta State and two at Mississippi University for Women.
“Every year we need to prune our inventory appropriately,” Layzell said. “We have a productivity review we do now and when institutions fall below the standards we put them on a watch list and give them some time to get back to speed, and if they don’t, then the program will be gone.”
The state system had 847 academic programs before the elimination of programs began earlier this year.
Layzell didn’t say how many programs will face cuts in the upcoming months or which institutions will lose the most programs. He did, however, say Mississippi’s budget crisis is taking its toll on higher education.
“The budget crisis has put some strain on us. The fact that we lost $98 million has hurt,” Layzell said.
“You get faculty that begin to leave the state and sometimes it really doesn’t take but one faculty member leaving a program to cause that program to kind of go into a tailspin.”
Layzell said Mississippi may also be missing a big opportunity by not offering casino-resort management courses on the Gulf Coast.
Tulane University, a private school based in New Orleans, is opening a Mississippi Gulf Coast branch that will teach casino management and other similar courses.
State law does not prohibit Mississippi’s universities and two-year colleges from offering gambling courses, but there has been opposition from religious groups to establishing such courses.
Layzell said casino-related courses will not be offered without legislative authorization and that doesn’t seem to be “in the cards politically.