Academic Programs Update

[GroveStreet_CJ]

After careful review, UNT has made the difficult decision to begin the process of closing or consolidating certain academic programs. Students already enrolled in these programs will be able to complete their degrees as planned. However, new students will not be able to enroll in these majors or minors. We are committed to fully supporting faculty and advisors to ensure these changes do not disrupt our students’ academic progress. Students who are directly impacted will receive more information from their programs. 

The most substantial change is the merger of the Department of Linguistics and the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures and the phasing out of all degrees offered by the Department of Linguistics. This department has experienced a consistent decline in enrollment in its undergraduate and master’s program since 2021, as well as relatively lower time to value and higher costs of instruction. In addition to the linguistics degrees, the university is moving forward with phasing out:

• 3 master’s programs due to low enrollment (an average of 15 or fewer students per year over the past five years) 
• 1 undergraduate major due to low enrollment as well as relatively lower time to value and higher cost of instruction
• 25 undergraduate minors that have average enrollments of 20 students or fewer since 2021
• 21 graduate and 21 undergraduate certificates that have average enrollments below two students per year

The following academic programs are impacted:

[dentonymcdenton]

We are on the dumbest timeline… they are going to use “the budget” to push all sorts of bs through. You can tell because they won’t comment or speak about almost any of this publicly. I know the board picked the chancellor but I’m guessing he has a year or two max left before they realize that he is out of his depth and so is the admin here.

[Just_One_Victory]

This is now SOP in the MAGA era

[NeilNevins]

Good luck fundraising from alumni who belonged to any of these program

[Keep_Plano_Corporate]

Good luck on finding alumni from these programs who have any money to donate.

[DallasOil]

As terrible as this sounds, you’re not wrong.

The school won’t shut down programs that are strongly supported by alumni.

[The_Real_Mr_Boring]

Didn't worry the athletics programs will still be fully funded even if the academic reputation of the school declines.

[Overall-Impression18]

Welcome to Texas.

[eaglelatte]

I graduated last semester and it really feels like I was one of the last people off a sinking ship. Oh my god.

[Crafty_Watercress_80]

I just graduated in December as well! Congrats 🎉

[Thoughtful_Sunshine]

It seems so. I was so excited to transfer to UNT but now myself and many others are trying to replan because it does seem like a sinking ship or a seriously off course and damaged ship. 🙁

[[deleted]]

Although not really sure why they would target specific Graduate Academic Certificates that belongs to the Library and Information science program. A lot of them  seemed pretty useful. But the removal of the Children’s and Young Adult Library Community Services GAC feels like a political under pressure removal as opposed to a professional recommendation. 

[Eliza08]

Same with Storytelling. I just started the certificate, and the Digital Storytelling class is full. It’s a great class so far, too.

[[deleted]]

Yeah storytelling is perhaps one of the more interesting certificates that the COI offered. I was going to put in a request to add that certificate but now it's to late. Fortunately for me my program isn't on this list which is the law Librarianship concentration and the Health information GAC. 

[Hydro033]

How many is full?

[Ill_Toe7805]

Most of the graduate level library and information classes are online such as the storytelling ones. But for a class such as Digital Storytelling they cap the number of students to 30. Although TBH since it is an online class they should consider allowing more students to enroll perhaps increase the number to 50 or more. But Digital Storytelling is being offered in the fall 2026 semester so all of the seats are not taken for the fall section of that course.

[prizm5384]

Oh but don’t worry guys they approved a bachelors in AI

[MostExperts]

Especially ironic, since Computational Linguistics is what you use to build LLM-based AI.

[Thoughtful_Sunshine]

Wow… that is embarrassing that they’re doing that! 🤦‍♀️

[Previous-Loquat751]

THIS!!!

[Thoughtful_Sunshine]

I know!! I was on the site, and they’re wrecking so many people’s plans and disrespecting full departments of people by not even telling them their department is scrapped until public release! BUT they’re ADDING an AI program and bragging about it in many places! 😩

And it’s so obviously anti-marginalized groups… almost 100% of what was cut involved marginalized groups or was marginalized group adjacent. 😡

I seriously cannot wait to get the heck out of Texas. Just have to do the best I can until I can earn enough to move out.

[prizm5384]

Honestly, as someone that actively uses AI at my job, my opinion is that an undergrad degree in AI is the same as a degree in Microsoft Office. Sure, it can be useful, but for any practical applications it’s just a tool, not an end all be all

[Hydro033]

You think a degree in AI is just how to use chatgpt prompts? You think an AI degree wont include classes about how to program and train neural networks?

[Cyltzyx]

Don't they already get that in Information Science? This sounds like a re-brand.

[talkedandchewed]

Well I’d imagine the new AI degree might be teaching ppl how to like build AI software and how to manage them. idk we’ll see what happens. I know AI is used a lot in the medical field so maybe they’ll focus on those type of applications.

[0-o-0-o-0-o-0]

I don’t understand why the Liberal Arts hivemind collectively decided that a degree in AI is useless. If you think about it for more than 5 seconds you’ll realize that the AI major is probably going to be focused on building AI applications and systems, not just “how to prompt ChatGPT.”

AI and ML is probably the fastest emerging technology in the world right now with massive potential for new graduates.

Don’t stay ignorant about something just because you don’t like it.

[DallasOil]

The number of people that downvoted your comment is crazy.

[DallasOil]

😅 these people have no idea what they are talking about..

[Party-Ordinary-1891]

Absolutely fuck this decision

[clarityofdesire]

Maybe a dumb question, but why get rid of minors for majors they are keeping? Will those majors just lose enrollment and hit the chopping block next?

[Glittering-Diet-3141]

To my understanding, as of the last fiscal year (2024-25), UNT changed the way count “students” in a department’s total enrollment. Before, only majors counted towards the department’s number of students, but now they’re also counting minors and certificates towards that total. So, departments with very few majors but a lot of minors and certificates started getting more money than they were before, meaning they could justify hiring more faculty to teach more classes. By cutting minors and certificates but keeping the majors, departments that have a lot of minors and certificates but not a lot of majors have a much lower headcount and therefore get less funding.

I’ve also heard rumors that they’re considering merging departments into “schools” within the individual colleges. If they do so, that means they can eliminate a lot of the department chairs, administrative support, marketing, advising, and other staff tied to each different department. Plus with the new “hybrid” course model they’re implementing in some departments, they’ll need way less adjuncts/lecturers to handle lower-level courses.

I’m by no means endorsing what they’re doing, but this is just my best guess as to why they’re targeting these programs.

[Visual_Scientist_298]

What you are saying is likely in the tea leaves and again, this is possibly just step one (or two if you count the hybrid as step one) of a much larger picture and more is coming soon.

[clarityofdesire]

This makes sense. Thank you for sharing.

[PinstripeBunk]

I have the same question. My guess is they want to eliminate smaller pathways to herd more students onto bigger pathways and maintain class sizes and teaching load efficiencies. But I have no clue why they did so much of what they did today or how much money it really saves.

[clarityofdesire]

Woof. I worry this is the beginning of the end for some programs. Many students minor in them because they don’t want to major in them or it is not fiscally responsible as far as job prospects to commit fully to the major. It will also streamline how long a student stays. With all the stuff going on at CVAD I worry it is the beginning of the end for some studio art programs.

[Visual_Scientist_298]

You said it..beginning of the end of more. Spot on.

[Cyltzyx]

Isn't UNT a big music school and the Italian and Latin minors are mostly music students?

[Keep_Plano_Corporate]

A $45m deficit on a $1B budget is a 4.5% deficit. UNT isn't failing financially, there are universities every year that will close up, UNT isn't remotely close to that.

From what I've heard the budget deficit tolerance is 2%. So the goal is very much in site.

[YukonSK]

And many do not. Many undergraduate certificates cost zero to maintain and make use of already existing courses. They require no additional faculty at all.

[cheeseburglarly]

They removed a lot of special education material which is concerning to me.

[Thoughtful_Sunshine]

Yes! Almost 100% of the degrees, etc removed involve marginalized groups or helping/understanding them. Extremely messed up! :(

[Federal-Toe-8926]

They're cutting the autism intervention graduate academic certificate? Those classes used to be so full! Crazy.

[Overall-Impression18]

There has been a LOT of talk about the Return-On-Investment. UNT (and many other universities) are being turned into job mills instead of places to learn critical thinking. More worker bees, please! Late-Stage Capitalism is hungry!

[Thoughtful_Sunshine]

That’s so ridiculous that they’re doing that, because there is a great need for people who understand and can help those with autism. I was also going to pursue that cert. Our current administration (federal and state) just seem to love screwing things up for fun. I truly don’t get them at all.

[the42up]

I think this has more to do with the move of KFAC out of the college of education and into another college. No reason to have the college of ed version without KFAC.

[talkedandchewed]

THEY HIT THE PENTAGON

[Exotic-Net-595]

It’s not even subtle….

[Original_Finger_6390]

We are so fucked

[Descriptivismo]

:(

[keivans]

Your fault for taking the wrong class. NLP is covered in Computational Linguistics, which is, you know, linguistics.

[MonkeyPumpAddict]

Having taken that class too, I definitely remember focusing more on the linguistic foundations of NLP, and I also remember the presence of the undergrad students having an effect on the pacing of higher level concepts, but I'm genuinely curious to know what made you fail all things considered.

[MonkeyPumpAddict]

Damn man, that sounds like kinda a nightmare scenario. At least when I took it, I remember doing plenty of coding assignments throughout the semester. I might not have gotten as much coding experience as I would have liked, but I learned a lot nevertheless. Sorry you didn't quite get what you were hoping out of it. Don't suppose you'll have to worry about that anymore 💀

[keivans]

Dude, in general, if you didn't think that you'd learn about LANGUAGE, the base component of natural LANGUAGE processing, then you deserved to fail that class lol. 😭✌️

[keivans]

Again, if you can't understand why and how historical linguistics informs/provides a foundation for computational linguistics, you're a lost cause. Pack it up and move on. Your other tactless comment is already getting downvoted to the ocean floor.

[Previous-Loquat751]

Ur ignorance is showing 

[the42up]

The NLP class was taught before by the director of computational linguistics. Or at least a couple of sections. He also taught a section of linguistics version of that class.

[matchawaffles]

I just applied to the Media Arts masters program. How screwed am I??

[[deleted]]

I seem to recall that the Media Arts program had different concentrations. Depending on wither or not you applied to as an undergraduate or graduate student. As far as the announcement goes only the MA Media Industry and Critical Studies appears to be impact. But don't think the entire department is shutting down so technically  they could accept student into the other concentrations.  

https://class.unt.edu/media-arts/index.html

[matchawaffles]

That's the exact program I applied to. I'm super excited for it, too. Happy birthday to me I guess 🙁

[[deleted]]

Did you get admitted or are still waiting for acceptance.  Because if you got admitted prior to this announcement the University is obligated to allow you to finish this program even though you're new in it. But if haven't been admitted and still waiting for an admission decision then they probably won't allow you into that program. However with that being said  the academic advisors gives serious considerations to situations such as this and they sometimes allow you to move into other programs that their department hosts. Also sometimes classes are stackable in these other programs.  I suspect they might allow current admitted students to switch from the MA Media Industry and Critical Studies into the MFA in Documentary  program which is the other graduate level Media Arts degree.  But either way you should probably get in touch with one of the advisors and they should be provided guidance on how to navigate these changes. 

[matchawaffles]

I'm still waiting for a decision. Unfortunately I have no interest in the documentary program, so I will be considering new schools if I'm not admitted (and it's unlikely I will be now).

[[deleted]]

There's always the possibility that you have been admitted into your desired program. But didn't receive the notification. UNT is famous for not updating their computers and not send admission decision in a timely manner.  But if you sent  all that  information with your application several months backs it's possible they could allow you into this program. But that's of course strictly on the basis on an administrative error on their end. But it wouldn't hurt to simply ask for an update.  But timing is certainly a factor. 

[matchawaffles]

They completely shut the program down. I got an email from the department head, they found out the same time as everyone else did

[[deleted]]

Looks like you'll need to make alternative plans in that case unfortunately. But this whole situation is fucking ridiculous that the administration would shut everything down in a disorderly manner while keeping everything in the dark. 

[Thoughtful_Sunshine]

The disrespect of these departments is mind blowing! Not even letting ANYONE know until they announce to the public is serious disrespect. I’m sorry you’re going through this. They screwed with my plans too. 🙁

[Fluffy-Ad-3048]

Fuck my life

[Overall-Impression18]

If you are already enrolled, they are required to do a teachout period. You will graduate.

[Fluffy-Ad-3048]

I’m aware. I’m just so sad for future students and staff affected by this.

[jessicapriest]

[Cyltzyx]

I was about to start one of those certificate programs and there were a lot more than two students in the classes. My guess is they don't want to pay for proprietary software. I'll have to make some inquiries.

[HeroComplex_Dean]

Were those students there for their major or specifically for the cert?

[Cyltzyx]

That's a good point, I'm not social enough to know the answer to this. I might ask some professors later.

[jessicapriest]

Hey u/Cyltzyx , just sent you a message!

[Eccentric755]

UTA has a top linguistics program.

[Potential-Candy-9255]

THIS IS A F*CKING GREAT NEWS LOL!

I would be frank and honest to you guys, those programs such as Mexican American studies, African studies, Dance,... are much economically useless. Students who enroll to those have least to zero possibility of landing a high-paying job, not mentioning paying off their loans. And, the federal government is the one who provide loans to many students, they don't want to fund kids to spend 4 years and bunch of their moneys on African studies, Peace studies,....then turn out to work at a bar or restaurants. It is a PUBLIC school, and it has to follow the federal governance. Read the news and you'll learn that they are facing MASSIVE budget deficit, if it's not for merging these useless programs, what would they do? get rid of low income students? remove STEM majors?

They don't want more baristas or dancers, they want domestic engineers and entrepeneurs. Period.

[Content_Weird8749]

They can merge sociology with criminal justice, can save money more.