WHY I CLOSED MY GEOSCIENCE DEPARTMENT AND WHAT YOU CAN DO TO KEEP IT FROM HAPPENING TO YOURS (Invited Presentation)

On December 31, 2016 the Department of Geosciences at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) was closed. Additionally, on that date admissions to the Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts in Geology degree programs were suspended. As the chief academic officer of the institution, these decisions fell to me to implement. The fact that for the past twenty-three years I had been a member of the Geosciences Department made doing so both ironic and extraordinarily difficult.

Because of its significant service function, the department experienced changes in credit hour production that were closely aligned with enrollment patterns experienced by IPFW. The university reached a maximum in undergraduate enrollment in 2010, immediately following the Great Recession. Since the fall of 2011 the campus experienced a steady decline in enrolled headcount. Likewise, the department experienced a decline in instructional credit hours beginning in 2012. In response to declining enrollment, during the summer and early fall of 2014, a university task force of 12 faculty and 12 staff members reviewed university systems and processes and developed an assessment process that came to be known as the University Strategic Alignment Process (USAP).

In response to the USAP process, I released a report that recommended the department focus on modifying the curriculum of the BS in Geology program, in collaboration with civil engineering, to create a highly applied geotechnical undergraduate experience. Additionally, I noted that program elimination would be a natural outcome of faculty attrition if growth did not occur.

What could have been done to change this outcome? The department never developed strong relationships with potential local or regional employers of geology graduates. The department failed to utilize personnel transitions to recast its curricular emphasis towards geotechnical education. There was great reluctance to develop client relationships with a growing civil engineering program. The department failed to recognize declining enrollments and a change in academic budgeting would shift emphasis from number of credit hours taught to number of majors and degrees conferred. As such, when university’s post-recessionary contraction worsened, the department and its programs became expendable.