Governors State University (GSU) has an Academic Program Review Committee (APRC) that reviews programs in a three or five-year cycle. Thus, all programs are reviewed every three or five years, depending on its standing. APRC is composed of Unit-A faculty representing all colleges and meets every two weeks. The reviews issued by APRC go to the Provost Office for further analysis. These reviews are used in the periodic reporting that GSU does to the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE).
GSU also has an Academic Program Elimination Review Committee (APERC) that evaluates the possibility of eliminating an existing program. APERC is composed of up to seven Unit-A faculty representing all colleges, but it only meets as needed. The Provost sends a request for APERC evaluation along with data on enrollment, majors, course offerings, and program costs. APERC reviews are forwarded to the Provost office and then to the Board of Trustees; they are not binding. APERC was very active during the budget crisis.
A teach-out plan must be developed for any program that is eliminated. The teach-out plan must assure that all students enrolled in the program have a fair opportunity to graduate. Teach-out plans are likely to be expensive since its classes tend to have very few students, while the cost of running those classes is the same. Therefore, cost savings tend only to occur –if they occur–after the entire teach-out takes place. Moreover, some programs might have very few students enrolled in it, but its courses are taken by majors from other programs. Thus, the only savings that are achieved by terminating a program are the administrative costs and the low-enrolled courses.
APRC derives from the Faculty Senate while APERC from the GSU – University Professionals of Illinois (UPI) Agreement. Both are demonstrations of shared governance at GSU.
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