An Academic Governance committee reviewed a request to freeze admissions to MSU’s Deaf Education Program on Thursday, leaving one of the program’s directors questioning MSU’s College of Education administrators’ decision to not notify him and other faculty members of the meeting.
Deaf Education Program co-director Harold Johnson said he did not know the University Committee on Academic Policy, or UCAP, discussed the program’s proposed moratorium — which is a freeze on admissions — until UCAP student representative Justin Lippi told him.
“I would have liked to have answered questions and provide accurate information (at the meeting),” Johnson said. “Now I’m questioning the extent that all the information now available on the program’s benefits is being heard by the committee.”
Although the cuts are part of the list of about 30 departmental, program and specialization cuts MSU Provost Kim Wilcox announced as part of an effort to trim operating budgets university wide, Johnson said the Deaf Education Program was not included in the original list.
“We thought we made the cut,” he said. “In mid-October, we were told the Deaf Education Program and American Sign Language classes would be closed and we were totally surprised.”
UCAP Chairman Martin Crimp said the committee advises the provost, but does not have the authority to make decisions on recommended program moratoriums.
Susan Dalebout, the College of Education’s academic student affairs director and certification officer, said she attended UCAP’s meeting last Thursday to answer questions from committee members on the moratorium proposal, but referred questions on the program’s recommended elimination to Cassandra Book, associate dean for external relations and student affairs of the College of Education. Dalebout said she was invited to the meeting by Book.
“I was an invited guest, just to be there to see if I could answer any questions,” Dalebout said. “I was there as an observer and a listener.”
Book did not return several phone calls to her office and home seeking comment.
Lippi said he expressed concern at the meeting about whether the program’s faculty members had an opportunity to attend.
“I have some concern myself that relevant faculty were not notified, as I believed that was something that was supposed to happen for these meetings,” Lippi said. “I can say it was pretty apparent to a lot of people at the meeting that a lot of people didn’t know about the meeting.”
Crimp said although some question if the program’s faculty members were notified, they still can raise questions through Academic Governance processes. He said UCAP agendas are available on the committee’s Web site, ucap.msu.edu.
“It was not clear whether all concerned parties were notified,” Crimp said. “I would have hoped they would have been informed by the college’s administration.”
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