The University of Connecticut Board of Trustees is voting to formally close three academic programs on campus on Wednesday. Others may be suspended or consolidated.
This comes two months after the Board of Trustees said they were reviewing 70 majors, specifically looking at those with low graduation rates.
In October when they first announced it, the university said they were reviewing the majors and looking for ideas on how to improve enrollment.
Immediately, the Professors Association President knew it wasn't good. He said he was concerned the cuts would be permanent to what is a temporary budget shortfall at the university.
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"We just have a sense that something very bad is coming down when you have 70 programs suddenly have to justify their existence or be terminated. We've never seen that before," said Christopher Vials, UConn AAUP.
NBC Connecticut spoke with students who like having smaller classes and say it is a benefit to learning and helps build better relationships with professors.
"There's a lot of marketability towards very specific majors, in particular the language majors," said Victoria Clingan, a UConn senior.
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In the end, UConn will be voting to formally close three programs - global health, obesity prevention and weight management - and Master of Arts in Politics and Popular Culture. UConn says the vote will have no impact on any students.
According to the school, two are graduate-level certificate programs that have never drawn any enrollment and the other is a masters program with one student who graduates in May.
If approved, the closures would start in Fall 2025.
No undergraduate programs are scheduled to close.
