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Millsaps President Dr. Rob Pearigen sent the following email to faculty and students announcing cuts in several programs.
Dear Members of the Millsaps Community,
It is my privilege to serve as President of Millsaps College and to work with students, faculty, and staff who are committed to the College’s mission and who embrace its guiding motto, Ad Excellentiam—“toward excellence.” Since 1890, this institution has brought together students and scholars with a shared dedication to learning, leadership, and service.
The Challenge
In 2019, that dedication remains as strong as ever, despite an increasingly challenging climate in higher education, particularly for small, private liberal arts institutions like Millsaps. We find ourselves today combatting not only major societal questions about the value and values of higher education but also more particular, enrollment-related challenges from more heavily resourced public universities that provide a very different, less personalized, and less expensive experience for students. (KF: Heavily resourced? Is this a new corporate buzzward or a use of bad English?)
Like many colleges and universities, addressing current challenges and preparing for the future of higher education requires us to create a new forward-looking vision for Millsaps. As an important step in that process, we have taken a hard and honest look at our enrollment and financial trends over the past decade. We cannot responsibly budget for faculty, staff, and programs that are built for an enrollment that is twenty percent larger than our current enrollment of 850 students. We must right-size and reduce costs to levels that can be sustained even as we reinforce our core educational mission and experience.
We must also aggressively explore new curricular, extra-curricular, and community-focused opportunities to support current and future students and generate additional sources of revenue. At the same time, we know that our changes cannot be only about balancing budgets and aligning revenue and expenses. Our new version of Millsaps must first and foremost deliver an enhanced educational experience for our students. I am confident that with thoughtful and bold action, we can meet our current challenges in ways that are both mission-driven and market-smart, and we can ensure that our historic legacy will thrive into the future with a new version of Millsaps College.
The Process for Addressing the Challenge
Since the spring of 2018, the senior leadership team of the College has reduced operating costs and staff levels by cutting our annual operating budget, and we are currently working to identify and implement further efficiencies and improvements in our business enterprise—always with a view toward the fundamental importance of the student experience.
During the current year, the Academic Council has devoted an extraordinary amount of time and thought to completing a comprehensive review of our academic programs with a goal of aligning structure and staffing to meet current and future student demand. They have delved deeply into information compiled from the Faculty Assessment Committee, Multi-Year Review and Assessment Reports (MYRAs) going back to the 2014-15 academic year, faculty feedback, and enrollment and financial data from a contribution margin tool. (KF: Talk about an exhausting sentence to read. Anyone want to diagram it?) All this information and data informed their work and their ultimate recommendations to the Provost and me related to possible changes and reductions in the academic program. It must be noted that the Academic Council’s recommendations applied only to academic programs, not to personnel nor to particular faculty lines within academic departments.
Utilizing the Academic Council’s recommendations, and with strict adherence to the terms and conditions of the Faculty Handbook, the Provost and I agreed upon a plan related to both academic programs and personnel, and we recommended our plan to the Board of Trustees during its spring meeting, April 24-26.
Changes in the Academic Program
The Board of Trustees approved the reduction and reallocation of resources in six programs that are described below and that will take effect following the 2019-20 academic year. These reductions, together with voluntary retirements and resignations, as well as planned departures and non-renewal of term appointments, impact staffing across all three divisions of the College.
Students currently pursuing degrees and coursework in the affected programs will be supported with mechanisms to help them graduate successfully and pursue their career goals. We will also provide support and resources for faculty members impacted by these changes.
| • | The elementary education major and teacher licensure program will no longer be offered. One tenured position will remain within the department to teach education studies and psychology courses, support our current licensure candidates, and advise future students with regard to licensure opportunities after graduation from Millsaps. Specifically, we are investigating potential partnerships with other institutions for accelerated education graduate programs and alternate pathways to teacher licensure. |
| • | While we will no longer offer a music major, efforts will be directed toward a performance-focused music minor and/or concentration, to continuing Millsaps’ legacy in choral music, and to developing additional instrumental ensembles. We remain committed to providing robust and rewarding musical experiences for our students. |
| • | One member of the History Department faculty will transition into an administrative position that will support College-wide initiatives in engaged and experiential learning. Remaining staffing will be sufficient to maintain the history major and meet the College’s curricular needs. |
| • | We will offer a minor in religious studies, rather than a major, and the department will be reduced by one tenure-line position. The study of religion will remain as an important curricular component, preparing our students for a world increasingly defined by religious identity and in need of leaders and individuals with a respect for – and knowledge of – multiple religions and the ability to navigate among them. The Chaplaincy and the Center for Ministry will enrich the curriculum, along with their efforts to reinforce our Wesleyan tradition and church relations. |
| • | The Geosciences Department will lose one tenure-line position. We will maintain our majors in geophysics, geosciences, and environmental science. |
| • | The Writing Program will be re-absorbed by the English Department, resulting in a reduction of one combined faculty/administrative line. Writing has been and will continue to be a core strength of the Millsaps education, embedded in the Compass Curriculum and all academic disciplines with proficiencies demanded by our writing portfolio and comprehensive examinations. |
Moving Forward
With all of this in mind, it is vitally important to look ahead with a spirit of innovation and pursue the full potential of a new version of Millsaps College. That new version must and will be mission-centered and aligned with the qualities that make Millsaps distinctive; it must and will come with an assurance of financial strength for the institution; and it must and will ensure a dynamic and promising path for our undergraduate students that takes them from high school to college and college to career, and an equally promising path for our graduate students pursuing their careers. (KF: Must and will, must and will, more buzzwords)
We have made great strides in our current strategic plan, Across the Street and Around the Globe: Partnerships and Influence at Millsaps College, but there is more to be done to build out that plan and to pivot strategically toward new opportunities in our curricular, extra-curricular, and community experiences. Important work is already underway that is reshaping the College for future success, including the recent partnerships signed with the University of Mississippi Pharmacy School and the nursing program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and further collaboration with the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Over fifty members of the faculty and staff are currently engaged in working groups examining new ways of thinking and acting related to student recruitment, career preparation, revenue generation, community engagement, and more. Our faculty leadership is continuing to explore new ways of organizing and delivering our curricular offerings that will continue to highlight the best of humanities, arts, sciences, and business education, but with an increased focus on how the educational experience leads to meaningful lives and careers after college. Our Board of Trustees is helping to lead an effort to capitalize on the northeast corner of our campus (located at the busiest intersection in the state) in a way that will generate revenue, enhance our mission, attract and support students, and connect with the Mississippi medical corridor. (KF: You mean you lost revenue after you kicked out the gas station and bulldozed the structures? Amazing how cutting off a revenue stream tends to cut revenue. Darn. Almost had a Yogi-ism there.) A group of Trustees, faculty and staff is also looking closely at our international programs and facilities, particularly in Yucatan, with an expectation of greater utilization and profitability. And, all of this is being done against the backdrop of major renovation and new construction on the west side of campus that will transform our physical presence and spark renewal in programs related to the humanities, the arts, and the religious life on campus. We believe these capital projects and the initiatives noted above will also significantly enhance our all-important efforts to recruit and support students.
We are extraordinarily fortunate that our future is reinforced by the generosity of alumni and friends of the College. The funds for the building projects mentioned above have been provided by private donations, and the Millsaps Annual Fund has more than doubled since 2010, with alumni participation increasing significantly.
Our work underway will help set the stage for a new and comprehensive strategic planning process in the 2019-20 academic year. As before, a broad representation of the Millsaps family, including students, will be involved in this strategic planning process.
I am grateful for the opportunity to lead this amazing institution. As we enter a new and dynamic chapter in the life of Millsaps College, I ask for your support in providing the best possible educational experience for our students and in living into our mission of the “innovative shaping of the social, economic, and cultural progress of our region.”
Ad Excellentiam!
Rob Pearigen
President and Professor of Political Science
