Disestablishing the MA in Counseling in Higher Education Program

The Graduate Committee of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies recommends disestablishing the Master’s (MA) in Counseling in Higher Education program. This motion comes moved and seconded from the committee.

The Master’s in Counseling in Higher Education was added to our Department in 1998, at the request of the then Dean, Dan Rich. From the start, issues of fit were expressed by several faculty members and administrators. Across the country, programs focused on higher education administration are typically not located in HDFS departments and, thus, it seemed somewhat unusual to graft this program onto our graduate offerings. Over these past twelve years, the program never became fully integrated into either the human development and family studies core curriculum or the social side of the department, and has continued to maintain a separate identity to the present time. An APR program review of the HDFS MS and PhD graduate programs of the Department in 2007-2008 questioned the goodness of fit of the MA program with the rest of the offerings, and suggested that this may not be the best use of resources in a small department such as ours. The APR team subsequently recommended that the program be discontinued in the Department. Nevertheless, the Department recognized the high quality of the program and remained committed to supporting it.

Upon taking on the Chairmanship in 2008, Dr. Donald Unger made it a priority to more closely integrate the MA program with the rest of the department. The Department revised curricula, offered cross-listed courses, brought faculty from both programs together through various mechanisms, and worked with liaisons across the university that could potentially support this program. At about this same time period, the School of Education introduced an MEd program in Higher Education Administration. At the current time the two programs are competing against each other for the same applicant pool and university assistantships and, yet, have different entrance and exit requirements. Compounding this issue is the fact that both programs are seriously understaffed and most courses are taught by adjunct faculty. Currently, the only full-time faculty affiliated with these programs is Dr. John Bishop.

The decision to terminate the HDFS MA program is based in part on these historical issues. However, maybe more importantly, new priorities have come to the forefront with the formation of the new College of Education and Human Development. In recent hiring plans neither SOE nor HDFS identified higher education as a high priority, relative to other priorities. Moreover, this program does not raise the scholarly profile of the unit or the College, an issue that is of paramount importance in the current environment. Under RBB, the program is costly to manage due to its reliance on s-contracts and brings in minimal tuition revenue from students. Administrators in the Office of Student Life, the primary source of student assistantships, have indicated that they are uncertain of their ability to provide paid assistantships as well as tuition reimbursement in the future. By discontinuing the program, necessary resources within the College can be freed up that could allow the College to hire new faculty in high priority areas. In terms of the department, it is critical for the graduate program to be coherent, that all students attain a core foundation in human development and family studies, and that they share a cohort experience. Terminating the MA program will allow us to further refine our areas of expertise and achieve a stronger national and international presence in human development and family studies.

Discontinuing the MA program is not an indication that HDFS would be opposed to contributing toward a master’s program in higher education within the College, in collaboration with the SOE, if resources were made available to offer such a program in the future.