By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Kansas Board of Regents is expected to move forward with next steps later this month after a consulting firm studied duplicated programs within the system.
Consulting firm rpk presented an oral report to the Regents in December and a final written report was issued in January.
The Regents have accepted feedback from the state's universities since that report was issued, Fort Hays State Univesity Provost Jill Arensdorf said
Arensdorf said she expects the Regents' next step will be to consider changing how it reviews programs.
Although teacher workload was a part of the rpk study, Arensdorf said she did not expect the Regents to take any further steps to address that part of the report at this time.
The current system requires programs at all state universities to be reviewed every eight years. Rpk recommended the process be done more frequently, especially with the duplicated programs that it found to be underperforming.
"We at Fort Hays don't wait to look at programs every eight years," Arensdorf said. "We know we have to do that for the Regents every eight years, but we are always looking at data on enrollments and market demand and data that informs us about programs.
"I'm hoping we will have more direction, and then we will start doing more of our own work in terms of interpreting the rpk data specific to Fort Hays."
She added, "I don't think it's in Fort Hays' best interest to get in front of the Regents on what they are going to do with the report."
The report found 55 percent of all majors across all state universities were concentrated in five disciplines—business, education, engineering, health and psychology.
Based on the 2017-2021 data, there are 13 bachelor’s programs and nine master’s degree programs that are duplicated across the system and were listed as needing to either be optimized or reviewed, according to rpk report.
Fort Hays State University has all of the bachelor's degrees on this review list with the exception of linguistics and theater. Although FHSU has a bachelor's degree in math, its emphasis is on teaching.
FHSU has the following master's programs on the rpk review list —biology, communication studies, English, art, history and nursing.
Hays Post made a public records request to find out the number of students in majors that were suggested for review in the rpk report. FHSU released the average number of students in the majors between the academic years of 2017 and 2021, the time frame that was reviewed for the rpk report.
FHSU said that only two programs fell below the Regents review minimum: music and physics. A master's degree in communications has already been recommended to be phased out as a major at FHSU. That recommendation was part of an already established review cycle and was not related to the rpk report.
However, the university noted that the review process will likely be changed as a result of the rpk recommendations.
A full list of the average students at FHSU in each of the majors noted in the rpk report is listed below.
Bachelor's degree
(average number of junior and seniors in the majors between 2017 and 2021)
Chemistry-28
English-42
Art-120
Geology-72
History-43
General studies-777
Math-25
Music-12
Philosophy-28
Physics-22
Sociology-173
Master's degrees
Biology-35
English-25
Art-23
History-50
Nursing-119
Communication studies-15
Arensdorf said no programs have been recommended for elimination at this time at FHSU as a result of the rpk report.
She said she hopes the Regents will consider Fort Hays' geographic location in program reviews. FHSU is the only state university in the western half of the state.
"Fort Hays is geographically positioned where I think we do need to serve a wide variety of programs because we want our population to be able to access those programs in their region," she said.
Aresndorf said she hopes the rpk report will not affect the recruitment and retention of faculty and students in programs discussed in the report.
"I think we absolutely have to wait on KBOR to see how they define duplication ..." she said.
The university plans to continue to recruit students into all its current programs, she said.
Part of the impetus behind the rpk report was to better meet Kansas workforce needs and address nationwide declines in college enrollments.
Arensdorf said FHSU is already tackling that in several ways.
The Robbins Banking Institute provides classroom training based on real-world observation from banking professionals. Its internship program enhances relationships with bank professionals, leading to job opportunities.
With an aging population of bankers and an increasing number of job openings, the institute expedites the training of students to fill banking positions, Arensdorf said.
Thanks to funding from the Kansas Legislature, the Cybersecurity Institute and Technology Incubator launched last fall. The FHSU Department of Informatics is leading this effort and working with the Small Business Development Centers, the new program's staff, and local businesses to identify micro-internship opportunities for FHSU students this spring and summer.
Student interns will work on special cybersecurity projects that develop essential technical and entrepreneurial interpersonal skills. Regional small businesses will benefit from the infusion of new talent and state-of-the-practice cybersecurity expertise, Arensdorf said.
FHSU’s social work cohort programs in southwest Kansas were designed for students already established and engaged in their local communities. The cohort model enables students to complete a bachelor of social work degree without frequent travel or relocation to Hays.
If approved by the Kansas Legislature, it will unify the three institutions and focus on workforce development. Initial academic pilot projects in agriculture, construction and nursing were selected to address pressing workforce development needs in rural Kansas.
Fort Hays last year began a reorganization of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, which administrators said was a proactive step to address changing enrollments within the college. That reorganization was implemented before the rpk report was released.
The plan consolidated the college's departments from 11 to five.
FHSU has seen a drop in headcount of 18.6 percent from a five-year high of 15,908 in 2019 to 12,951 on Sept. 20, 2022.
Arensdorf contributed some of the declines in enrollment to the pandemic, and she said university officials expect FHSU to recoup some of those losses. She said FHSU already saw some rebound in online enrollment for the spring semester.
The university budgeted for the anticipated pandemic-driven decline in enrollment, she said.
FHSU reduced operating budgets and carefully reviewed new and open faculty and staff positions over the last several years with a focus on finding efficiencies to reduce personnel costs, Arensdorf said.
"At the same time, the university dedicated specific funding to the creation of a dedicated student recruitment marketing team," she said. "We also established a $1 million annual budget for student recruitment marketing that has placed significantly more potential students than ever before in our admissions pipeline."
Arensdorf admitted there are also regional factors that may be influencing FHSU enrollment numbers. These included population decline in western Kansas as well as low unemployment rates, which may allow students to enter the workforce right out of high school and gain skills on the job.
FHSU is also facing more competition for online students, she said.
Enrollment has also been down in the university's China programs, Arensdorf said. Those numbers are determined by the Chinese ministry of education.
"I have no indication right now that China is going to cut our programs," Arensdorf said.
She said she thinks the number of students in that program is going to stay level. FHSU is working to expand its international programs in other countries, including Cambodia and Senegal.
"The bottom line is I hope some good can come out of this work with rpk," Arensdorf said. "I really think that Fort Hays State is positioned to have a voice in that work.
"I am also committed to be responsible here as an institution and to work closely with our faculty, students and staff to make good decisions for our institution, region and beyond."