At his annual State of the University speech, Boise State President Bob Kustra says the school will spend a year ranking its programs, departments and offerings. The process is being dubbed "program prioritization."
He says the goal is to make Boise State programs more cost effective. “We know there will be some resources as a result of this study that will require re-allocation,” says Kustra.
Last month, the State Board of Education mandated that universities prioritize programs. Kustra says programs that are struggling to find students may have to realign their offerings. “There is no target for any layoffs," says Kustra. "There are shifts that could occur and there are vacancies that might not be filled in areas where it’s determined and agreed upon that this simply is not as productive an area of investment as it once was.”
Boise State must report back to the Idaho Board of Education by May of 2014 about what they’ve decided to do. He says there is no requirement in this process to eliminate a specific number of programs at the school.
A member of the state board told us last month the process could lead to programs being eliminated at all of Idaho's universities.
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