UW-Stevens Point plans to cut programs, staff amid declining enrollment

STEVENS POINT - Students at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point likely will have fewer academic programs to pick from in the coming years.

The campus is facing declining enrollment and is now looking for ways to cut costs. Over the course of the school year, the campus will develop plans to eliminate staff positions and programs to invest in areas more likely to increase enrollment, such as its geographic information science program.

One cut already proposed: UW-Stevens Point will likely eliminate its Geography and Geology Department, although not necessarily those majors.

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"We're going to be a stronger but smaller institution," said Provost Greg Summers, who is head of academics at the university.

Although officials have not made decisions about offerings and staffing, Summers said he expects the changes will result in cuts to staff and programs offered at UW-Stevens Point. He said the campus also plans to add programs.

The campus this fall welcomed its smallest first-year class in nine years with 1,570 students, according to preliminary figures, as well as its smallest overall student population in seven years with 8,220. Between a drop in state financial support and a decline in tuition revenue that comes with fewer students, the campus must focus on what programs make the most sense for the future, Summers said.

To that end, the university plans to restructure the College of Letters and Science — details about which have not yet been determined — and eliminate positions within at least three departments in that college. While the university eliminates its Department of Geography and Geology, it plans to grow its geographic information science, or GIS, offering into a full major.

To make investments like the GIS major, Summers said, the university must free up money currently spent elsewhere.

Talks about the Geography and Geology department's future have prompted concern among students, staff and alumni who say the programs are valuable and want them to live on.

"Any move they make is going to be bad at this point, because all of our departments are necessary," said David Ozsvath, chairman of the department. "Any decision they make will be hard."

Ozsvath, who has worked at UWSP for about 30 years, said he felt ill as he approached the moment he had to tell his colleagues of the ongoing conversation at the university.

"You go through the stages of grief, and you go from denial and disbelief and all of those," he said. 

He said as part of the ongoing restructuring, his department has the chance to propose changes to its majors that would help them grow in the future.

Alumnus Jeff Hintz, a planner in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, said he was shocked that the department that helped him develop a career is facing elimination. He earned his degree in geography from UWSP.

"It's unfortunate that things have gotten to where they are," he said. 

The Geography and Geology department also has generated a central Wisconsin workforce, said Stephanie Finamore, environmental director at Mi-Tech Services. Finamore said the Weston-based firm seeks new employees from the department and fears its elimination could hurt its ability to find staff.

"Folks who are going to school in Stevens Point, either they're from the area or they've lived in the area for the last four years," she said. "It's a lot easier to hire someone just coming from college locally than it is to hire someone from Madison and ask them to move here."

The Department of Geography and Geology's staff also provides expertise for local businesses, said Pete Arntsen, a hydrogeologist at Sand Creek Consultants in Amherst whose company refers to the department for help at times. He said he understands the financial need for the university but doesn't want to lose the resource.

Current students should feel no effect from the changes, Summers said. The changes could be different from typical downsizing, however, because a system policy allows a campus to terminate tenured faculty members when an academic department is eliminated. 

Summers said he told faculty the changes may result in eliminated programs and layoffs for tenured faculty, but no decisions have yet been made.