By The Keystone Newspaper Anthropology, geography, history, modern language studies and sociology departments to merge January 2026
By Kara Armstrong
In March, KU announced the consolidation of its anthropology, geography, history, modern language studies and sociology departments into a single unit. Planning for the department will continue into fall 2025, and the new structure will be implemented in January 2026.
The university plans to submit moratorium paperwork for the anthropology and geography major programs in spring 2026. This follows the modern languages majors, which were placed into moratorium in fall 2024. Students currently enrolled in an affected major will be permitted to finish their degrees.
Laurie McMillan, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said the decisions were the result of shifting student interest and declining enrollment.
According to McMillan, student interest has shifted to degrees in technology and healthcare fields. Other popular programs at KU include business, psychology, education and criminal justice. “We need to make sure we are putting our resources where student demand is,” McMillan said. “My heart is a humanities and social sciences heart, and some of our degrees that are going into moratorium are in those areas because of the student demand, not because I don’t value them.”
At the March 13 council of trustees meeting, student Linda Zúñiga reported that the number of anthropology majors in spring 2023 increased from 11 to 44. “It’s not fair to say this decision is being made in response to student interest,” she said. “At no point in the decision-making process were the students consulted.”
McMillan cited the demographic cliff as another factor in the decision-making process. “Overall, we’re looking at declines in student enrollment, which means that overall, we’re going to have fewer students, so we’ll need to have fewer faculty and fewer staff, right?” she said. “The college needs to downsize. The university needs to downsize.”
Eric Johnson, a history professor at KU, said that while the demographic cliff is an issue the university must address, it is not the whole story.
“I don’t blame the dean or any of the local administration for this,” he said. “This all comes down to the fact that Pennsylvania is at the bottom in the nation for funding public higher education. We had our budget slashed severely in the early 2010s, and everything that’s been happening since has really been about trying to get our public higher education system to fit into the much-reduced budget that has been created.”
Johnson said the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, or PASSHE, invested in amenities such as residence halls before the budget cuts were rolled out, resulting in debt. Dixon Hall is one such residence hall that was constructed during this period.
“If you look at other PASSHE universities, this is all part of the same problem,” Johnson said. “Kutztown is, in many ways, surviving all of this better than other PASSHE schools.”
In 2022, two mergers occurred between six PASSHE schools. California University, Clarion University and Edinboro University merged into Pennsylvania Western University. Bloomsburg University, Lock Haven University and Mansfield University merged into the Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania.
These mergers were part of an ongoing System Redesign plan launched by PASSHE Chancellor Daniel Greenstein in 2020. The plan also anticipated the reduction of 1,531 full-time positions—non-teaching staff as well as faculty—across all PASSHE schools.
“To the credit of the KU administration, unlike other PASSHE institutions, we have not laid off any faculty,” Johnson said of the affected departments. “We are not in the worst scenario that has been happening in the PASSHE system—far from it. I don’t think I’m being too cynical by saying that consolidations like this one are kind of a soft way of eliminating programs that are seen, for whatever reason, as being less essential.”
McMillan cites the consolidation of certain departments as a measure designed to prevent possible future layoffs. “It’s difficult to show that my values are aligned in so many ways with students and faculty who are upset by the changes,” McMillan said. “My values are aligned, but I also have to be a very careful steward; otherwise, in five or 10 years, we could be laying people off and I don’t want to be in that situation. I think a lot about being fiscally responsible now so that in the future we’re not in an emergency.”
Johnson, who started at KU in 2006, said the history department is approaching 20 years since it was last able to hire a full-time, tenure-track professor. “The way I see it, it’s kind of like a vicious cycle, because cutting faculty means that students have fewer options here, and I think that affects student enrollment, recruiting and retention,” he said.
The consolidated department will feature one secretary and one chair. The university currently has a history secretary, an anthropology-sociology secretary, a part-time geography secretary and a temporary modern language studies secretary, as the permanent secretary moved to the Department of Criminal Justice. McMillan said she hopes the secretaries will be able to find alternate employment at KU.
The consolidated department will feature one chair, and the provost will assess the parameters of the new department to determine whether an assistant chair is appropriate. McMillan said there will likely be program coordinators within the department, representing various areas of study.
McMillan said the impact on students currently enrolled in the affected majors will be minimal, citing secretary and faculty office locations, as well as the organization of recognition ceremonies, as two of the most imminent changes. The university will most likely relocate the offices of faculty within the consolidated departments to Old Main.
Although McMillan said she believes the impact on current students will be minimal, some KU students expressed concern for the future of the disciplines they care about.
“This university cannot claim to prepare students for the future if it does not prioritize the very disciplines that help us understand the world,” Zúñiga said. “We are not just fighting for ourselves; we are fighting for the students who come after us.”
An online petition opposing the changes has garnered over 700 signatures.
“I was lucky and honored to graduate from Kutztown University with a dual major in anthropology and history,” said one alumna identified as Carly. “The fact that this may not be an option for future students makes my heart ache. It was because of these professors’ support that I got to where I am today.”
“I have a great deal of concern for the effect of cutting corners on teaching these subjects by merging them,” said a user named Daniel. “What especially concerns me is that the reduction of studies for anthropology and history, respectively, will also reduce the presence of intellectualism in these areas. Human discourse thrives on intellectualism, and if intellectualism gets purged, diversity in human discourse becomes endangered.”
“I don’t blame people for being mad,” McMillan said, acknowledging the frustration of students who felt caught off guard by the changes and their voices weren’t heard. “This is a pain point. Something went awry with students not feeling like they had access, and I need to address that.”
McMillan said that in response, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences office is beginning to plan for a student advisory group to stay more in touch with students. “There are some decisions that we can hear student concerns on, but I need to be careful that I’m not telling students that they have influence on a decision they might not have influence on,” she said. “At the same time, I feel like we didn’t have a good method to hear student voices.”
McMillan said she hopes the advisory group will provide a stronger outlet for student voices in future decision-making.