It’s an unfortunate fact that money, or lack thereof, is a major factor when it comes to operations on a university campus. OSU Institute of Technology is no exception. For several years, as Oklahoma’s lawmakers have wrestled with a statewide budget crisis, they have handed OSUIT a 23 year reversal in annual operational funding. This means OSUIT must operate in 2018 on 1995 funding levels. We, along with every other public institution for higher education in Oklahoma, are feeling the effects of funding cuts from our state legislature, and it’s something we will continue to deal with for the foreseeable future. In the current fiscal environment, everything has to be analyzed, and the toughest of decisions have to be made.

Q: I’ve heard some of the OSUIT programs are being phased out; what’s going on?

A: For nearly four years, the staff in our Office of Fiscal Services at OSUIT has worked tirelessly to mitigate the effects of continued statewide budget cuts, but it became clear to everyone last year that funding for higher education wasn’t going to rebound, and cuts would continue to come our way. So, I asked our academic leaders to develop cost-saving plans to help us in this budgetary crisis. And while they found several budgetary efficiencies and revenue-generating opportunities, they were not enough to make up the fiscal gap we had to fill.

We then looked at industry trends and workforce needs of each of our academic programs, as well as enrollment figures and operational costs. OSUIT offers so many worthy programs, but they are all competing for fewer and fewer resources. After reviewing the data, I made the decision to retire five of our programs on the Okmulgee campus through a multi-year phase out. Those five programs are the Associate of Applied Science degrees in Automotive Collision Repair Technologies; Manufacturing Technologies; Photography Technology; Watchmaking & Microtechnology and the Bachelor of Technology degree in Civil Engineering Technology.

This means that beginning this fall, no new students will be admitted into these affected programs, and our faculty will focus on a “teach out” for the current students remaining in all five programs. We want to ensure these students are given the opportunity to complete their degrees and educational goals in a timely fashion. That part of OSUIT’s mission hasn’t changed.

These are difficult times for OSUIT, but I believe our attention to doing the best we can with the budget we’ve been given is the responsible thing to do for our students, our faculty and staff, our industry partners, and our community. Our mission remains: to offer exceptional postsecondary technical education so our graduates have the best opportunity to enter the workforce fully qualified and ready.

And while it’s never easy to see programs being discontinued, we are excited about the future of OSUIT and what we will soon be able to offer students and graduates. Read more about that in my column next week, as I will be announcing the newest Bachelor of Technology degree at OSUIT.

As always, your questions and comments about OSUIT are greatly appreciated. Please continue to send them to osuit-president@okstate.edu.

Dr. Bill R. Path is president of Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology and board member of Okmulgee Main Street Inc.