KENT, Ohio — Kent State University students are raising concerns about the institution's recently announced Transformation 2028 initiative, which intends to reduce the number of colleges at the university and decrease administrative costs.
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Madison McCartha, an undergraduate student at Kent State, is leading efforts to get answers from university leadership about T-28. McCartha, an active member and leader in the student-led labor activism organization United Students Against Sweatshops Local 27, expressed disappointment over what McCartha describes as a lack of student involvement in the plan’s development process.
"With a university like this, the students are the stakeholders," McCartha said. "We believe that as the people who make the community, who put in our effort and our time into the school, we should be involved in these discussions. It's disheartening and disenfranchising when we’re left out of this."
Concerns over potential program 'sunsetting'
The Division of Academic Affairs at Kent State is spearheading the T-28 initiative, which is gathering faculty and staff input to help reduce the 11 colleges at the university into a smaller number. Current models for the reduction range from five to nine colleges instead of 11.
According to emails from university leadership, T-28 is not intended to eliminate any academic degrees. However, McCartha believes university leaders are not telling the truth due to a T-28 document USAS obtained outlining the process of "sunsetting," or phasing out, certain programs.
"Sunsetting programs is something they're actively investigating, and while we recognize that sunsetting programs is a regular part of academia, our concerns are the fact that they haven't actually communicated any of that and have instead said the opposite," McCartha explained. "They've said that T-28 doesn't include any plans to sunset programs when the documents that we found actively outline how to look into and plan out sunsetting."
In response to McCartha's concerns, Kent State Executive Vice President and Provost Melody Tankersley explained that T-28 is centered on reorganization, not program elimination.
"Every single program we offer is in this plan. There is nothing cut … from T-28," Tankersley said. "What we're doing now has nothing to do with getting rid of degree programs, not at all. But at the same time, we are charged and will always be charged with making sure we're offering the most relevant programs."
Tankersley, who is leading the T-28 effort, says the document McCartha is referring to is a piece of a larger document provided to faculty as reference material that outlines mandatory rules and processes the university must follow. She says sunsetting programs is a normal function of universities.
"There is a process for sunsetting programs, and we always are looking to make sure that the programs we're offering are the programs that students want and are raising their hands and enrolling in," Tankersley added.
According to Tankersley, in the last five years, the university inactivated 108 programs and suspended (stopped accepting applications to) 48, In the same timeframe, 172 new programs were established.
"You're not going to wake up on a Monday morning and find out that we closed something without all of this input, without engaging our entire community," she assured.
Student involvement in T-28
Tankersley added that students were given an opportunity to provide input through an anonymous survey, but emphasized that the T-28 process is primarily faculty-led due to their expertise in academic management.
"We've got some students who are on some of our committees, but the curriculum, the degrees we offer, those really are faculty-led processes," Tankersley argued.
Ann Winter, executive chair of Kent State's Graduate Student Senate, offered the following statement to 3News regarding T-28:
"The Kent State University Graduate Student Senate leadership has been made aware of an article published by WKYC on October 23, 2024. As quoted in the original article by Associate Provost West, University Administration is adamant that 'It's not going to affect students at all directly or interested or prospective students.' However, changes to structures of colleges, academic departments, schools, and programs will disproportionally impact graduate students who are often attending Kent State University as Graduate Assistants, Fellows, Teaching Assistants, etc. – all positions that are funded by the academic programs where they study. I am failing to understand how these changes will not directly impact graduate students, and we have not yet had an actual face-to-face meeting with leadership where we have the opportunity to ask questions or address concerns."
Shannon Brown, president of the university's Undergraduate Student Government, also says the provost came to speak to the group about T-28 last month.
"After that meeting, her team invited myself and other student leaders to be involved in future conversations about Transformation 2028," Brown wrote in an email to 3News. "Those meetings have not occurred yet or have been scheduled."
T-28 comes as Kent State deals with financial challenges
For students and faculty alike, the future structure of Kent State's academic programs remains a point of close attention. T-28 comes as KSU President Todd Diacon recently announced the university closed Fiscal Year 2024 with a $9.9 million deficit, indicating it was the first time in at least 20 years the school ended a fiscal year in the red.
McCartha and other student advocates argue that maintaining open communication with university leadership is essential for fostering a supportive campus environment that values student contributions to decision-making processes.
"Keep people involved in these processes so that students aren't kept in the dark and wondering what's going to happen to their school," McCartha advocated.