Albany State officials say no current students impacted by terminated degree programs

ALBANY — Albany State University officials say that the announced terminations this week of 15 degree programs will not adversely affect any students enrolled at the university.

ASU issued an emailed statement Wednesday night on the action taken by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents at its two-day meeting in Macon.

“The process of analyzing academic programs is a common practice and ensures programs meet the needs of students and can lead to degree completion,” ASU officials said in the statement. “As part of a systemwide effort, 429 programs have been terminated across the University System.”

Several of the terminated programs had no students enrolled in them, university officials said. Students who are enrolled in any of the programs will be allowed to complete their studies.

“Associate-degree programs selected for termination were chosen due to lack of student enrollment,” university officials said. “There were no enrollments in these programs for the last two years and no students are impacted by the terminations.”

Bachelor’s degree programs that were ended had “limited student enrollment,” ASU officials said.

“Students continuously enrolled in affected programs will be allowed to continue to completion,” the university said.

The closed programs also do not mean students cannot obtain degrees in the fields of study.

“Albany State will continue to offer degree programs in education, science and art,” the university statement said. “These programs have been streamlined to give students clearer paths to degrees that offer broader career opportunities.

“While the program names have changed, students may still earn degrees in these program areas. Albany State will work with all students impacted by this action.”

The programs terminated Wednesday at ASU, according to the listing on the Board of Regents’ agenda, were associate of applied science in psychiatric technology; associates of science in cancer registry management, cardiovascular technology, human services technology, and polysomnographic technology; bachelors of arts with majors in Spanish language, literature, art, music, and music education; bachelors of science with majors in teaching field – health & physical education, and teaching field – science; masters of education with majors in teaching field – music, teaching field – English, teaching field – mathematics, and teaching field – health & physical education.