Programs on Hiatus

BY CHLOE TELLER

A shift in academic offerings has led to a “hiatus” of several programs, paving the way for the introduction of new majors and minors at the College.  

The hiatus means that certain courses will no longer be available to current and prospective students to add to their schedule. This decision, affecting a minimal number of students, is part of a broader effort to relocate resources towards areas with greater demand and potential for growth. 

Peter Ubertaccio, the Vice President of Academic Affairs, emphasized the necessity of this realignment.  

“When adding new programs, we also need to see where we are investing,” he said. 

This hiatus will aim to bring in new programs that generate higher levels of interest and participation among students.  

“We chose to put programs on hiatus that had very few enrollments, 0-2 in each, that we saw consistently declining. Most of the students enrolled in these were graduating seniors,” he said. 

 Within the Art Department, for instance, the Arts Administration concentration and minor have been discontinued.  

“Because we have no full-time person dedicated to teaching in this area, what it means, in reality, is that students can't pick this as a major concentration or minor. It also means we won't be able to offer a few classes that were a regular part of the art department's offerings. The concentration and minor have struggled to gain traction in terms of numbers of majors.  This meant that the Intro to Arts Admin class and the Capstone class in particular had to regularly run with very low numbers over the last number of years,” Associate Professor and Department Chair Adam Lampton said.  

The new incoming programs at Stonehill will be heavily marketed to incoming students. New programs include Communication Sciences & Disorders, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Business Analytics, Talent and Human Resource Management, and Business in the Spanish-Speaking World.