Aidan Van Nynatten 

News Writer 

Image courtesy UNCG 

The UNCG Academic Program Review (APR), now close to a year and a half in the making, has been at the center of campus activities and discussion since the UNC Greensboro Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the Bunsis Report about the university’s budget pushed it to the forefront during the Fall 2023 semester. Increased attention to the APR process inspired students to organize and participate in demonstrations that often cut into class schedules. Now that Chancellor Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr. has shared the official list of the eliminated programs and majors, students in affected programs can start to understand what to expect in the coming weeks and months, while others can begin to reflect on how the process has affected the UNCG community more broadly. 

Tentative lists of programs suggested for termination first circulated in the fall, although they were different from the final decision, which the chancellor announced on Feb. 1, 2024. One list of “programs under threat of elimination,” publicized in mid-October 2023 by UNCG’s AAUP chapter, included chemistry, dance, kinesiology, history, and many other programs, totaling nearly 40 overall, a contrast to the 20 included in the final list. That document was one in a series of updates and revisions, but it was not one that the university officially distributed. The password-protected APR rubrics were eventually made available to faculty and shared with the UNCG AAUP. Understandably, these early lists became a major source of anxiety and confusion among students and faculty alike, and the lists’ sources compounded concerns about a lack of transparency on the part of administration, as the UNCG AAUP and student organizers have frequently indicated. 

This issue has become so pressing that Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Charles Bolton has officially resigned in protest of the cuts and the way that related communication has been handled. According to Jeremy Bauer-Wolf of Higher Ed Dive, Bolton accused Provost Debbie Storrs of pressuring CAS Dean John Kiss to recommend cutting the mathematics and anthropology programs. If true, this is a serious accusation, as it suggests the limited role of department leadership in the decisions and considerable overreach by university leadership in identifying majors to be eliminated. 

Bolton is far from the only member of the UNCG community to take action against the APR. The UNCG AAUP has been continuously active in posing challenges to the process, spearheading petitions (such as the one submitted to the chancellor’s office on Dec. 4 of last year with nearly 4,000 signatures) and demonstrations (such as the most recent Rally Against Cuts conducted in front of the Alumni House on Jan. 24). Similarly, concerned graduate students (@greensborostudentorg on Instagram) continue to share student responses and push back against the administration’s statements. Still, the APR has moved ahead into the next phase. 

While the administration has consistently affirmed that current students will be able to finish out their degree programs, this claim has also been called into question. According to Jessie Pounds, writing for the Greensboro News & Record, “Gilliam said in an interview [on Jan. 8] that it is still his expectation that would be true for all students, despite the fact that the university’s academic review timeline includes potential negotiations with other universities or colleges for students to finish their degrees there.” 

The official program cut list went public on Thursday, Feb. 1, and it is available online in “A Message from the Chancellor,” which was also sent to the university community via email. The list includes the following majors and programs: 

Undergraduate Majors 

BA, Anthropology 

BA, Secondary Education in Geography 

BS and BA, Physics 

BS, Physical Education, Teacher Education (K-12) 

BA, Religious Studies (will now be a concentration within the Liberal and Professional Studies Program)  

Undergraduate Minors, Certificates, and Course Offerings  

Chinese minor 

Russian minor 

Korean language courses  

Graduate Programs 

Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Nursing 

Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Advanced Practice Foundations (Nursing) 

MA, Applied Geography 

MFA, Drama Concentration in Directing (Concentrations in Musical Direction for Musical Theatre, Theatre for Youth, and Design will continue) 

MFA, Interior Architecture 

MA, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures 

MAT, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures in Teaching 

MA, Mathematics (all concentrations) 

MEd, Special Education 

Dual Masters in Nursing Science and Business Administration (The stand-alone MBA and standalone MSN are not affected) 

PhD, Communication Sciences and Disorders 

PhD, Computational Mathematics 

All official communications about the APR process remain available on the Reinvention & Innovation website, which includes a Latest Information page. The UNC Greensboro AAUP chapter is also continuing to share timely responses to new information on Instagram and on their website.