NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. (WOWO) – Manchester University has announced that they will be eliminating 11 jobs by the end of 2021 and also adding new health science programs.
Two positions in the faculty will be eliminated at the end of this academic year and three more at the end of the 2020-2021 academic year.
Six staff jobs will be eliminated by the end of January 2020. One of those will be from the Fort Wayne Campus and the other five will be from the main campus in North Manchester.
Staff members whose jobs are being cut were notified Tuesday.
According to our partners in news at ABC 21, the university indicated that the move was largely due to a decline in enrollment and the cuts are needed to keep the school affordable.
The university is not planning on cutting any programs this year, however, they are not ruling it out in the future.
Should the university decide to eliminate a major, students in that major will be able to complete it, but no new ones will be accepted.
Manchester University President Dave McFadden said, “Because of the faculty reductions, we expect that some majors will be phased out. Faculty committees are currently reviewing the latest information to identify what the next steps will be. All curricular changes require faculty approval before they are implemented”
“We are investing in programs that have the potential to grow,” said McFadden “That means reinventing some existing majors and ultimately phasing out others.”
Proposed changes have been made in many areas such as biology-chemistry, education, environmental studies, visual arts, criminology, medical technology, exercise science, and music.
The university is currently looking into adding a Master of Science degree in nutrition and in nutrigenomics, the study of the relation between a person’s DNA, health and nutrition.
A proposal was approved by the Board of Trustees to offer the five-year master’s degree program. The program will include three years at the undergraduate level at the North Manchester campus then the two graduate-level years at the Fort Wayne Campus.
The university is also trying to obtain accreditation for a bachelor’s degree in nursing. The school has already added an online pharmacogenomics master’s degree, with their first-class set to graduate soon.
