Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann believes Mississippi’s universities should be “selling what people want to buy,” even if that means cutting unpopular classes.
Hosemann told The Dispatch Jan. 6 he shared that same advice with Mississippi University for Women President Nora Miller.
“In my discussions with the president, I told her that – like everything else – education is evolving,” he said during a Zoom press conference with a handful of media outlets on the first day of this year’s legislative session. “You need to be selling what people want to buy. … You’re seeing a purging of classes throughout the (the State Institutions of Higher Learning). You’re seeing people start to focus … on what kids want to do.”
Mississippi University for Women officials said the university is already doing that but by focusing on expanding students’ options and workforce development opportunities rather than cutting classes.
During the 2024 legislative session, a failed name change effort and a sudden onslaught of threatening bills, including one proposing Mississippi State University take control of MUW, cast The W’s future into some uncertainty.
While Hosemann doesn’t expect university closures and consolidations to be on the table again during the current session, he feels all state universities should reassess class offerings to ensure students are well-served.
“Classes that didn’t have 10 or more people attending, they’re closing the classes and repositioning the professors or whatever they do with them,” he said.
MUW awarded 705 bachelor’s degrees during the 2022-2023 academic year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Of those degrees, the majority – roughly 77% – came from the university’s most popular programs areas, which fall under health professions and related programs and business, management, marketing and related programs.
All other programs each awarded somewhere between zero to 25 bachelor’s degrees the same year, with the lowest number of graduates coming from women’s studies (0), physical sciences (1), Spanish language and literature (1), general studies (1) and speech communication and rhetoric (4).
In an email to The Dispatch, Miller said online courses and classes in the university’s largest programs fill quickly each semester, while upper-division courses that fall toward the end of students’ programs of study are harder to fill.
Miller said the university has two different councils, one each for undergraduate and graduate programs, that meet during the academic year to revise courses and programs as departments request them.
But there is “no discernible benefit” to removing a course from the catalog, the statement said.
“However, on a semester-by-semester basis, the colleges will look at low-enrolled course sections to determine which ones can be canceled,” Miller said. “To ensure cancellations are not adversely impacting students, this process often involves reviewing course rosters and individual student degree plans.”
‘Affordable and accessible higher education is a popular choice’
Miller and Hosemann also discussed several new and future programs during their August meeting aimed at building MUW’s largest programs while meeting market demands by offering a faster, less expensive way to obtain a degree, Miller said.
“We believe that offering an affordable and accessible higher education is a popular choice,” she said. “… Creating pathways and streamlining curriculum has allowed The W to meet students where they are and provide them with the resources and tools that they need to be productive members of our campus and society.”
Four of them establish streamlined pathways that help students obtain advanced degrees faster while preparing for the workforce.
Through a partnership with East Central Community College in Decatur, students can earn a bachelor’s and master’s degree over two years at The W once they’ve earned their associate’s degree over three years at ECCC.
Miller said other initiatives are designed to help meet workforce development needs while growing the university’s largest programs, like the nursing program in which more than 80% of students work in Mississippi after graduating.
The university introduced an early admission program for high schoolers last week that allows for early admission into MUW’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program.
Through a partnership with Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle nursing students can earn clinical experience and mentorship through a paid externship program at the hospital. After finishing the course, the students stay on to work at BMH-GT after they graduate for another year.
The university still aims to balance workforce development demands with maintaining its liberal arts foundation, Miller said.
“We are using our strong liberal arts core to advance the competencies that employers seek, such as critical thinking, communication and professionalism,” she said. “The W provides a foundation for our graduates to adapt to ever-present challenges.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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