The administration at Nicholls State University is not cutting athletic training or communicative disorders programs, but their potential changes will be beneficial for students in the long run.

Lynn Gillette, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said that suggesting the two programs have been cut is “completely false.”

“They’re not being cut,” Gillette said. “They’re being turned into concentrations that we frankly think better prepare our students, certainly in athletic training, to go forward in the field.”

Dean of the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sue Westbrook said that in the future, students will be required to earn a Master’s degree in order to become a certified athletic trainer. Athletic training at Nicholls has graduated an average of 7.8 students every year for the last five years.

Pre-athletic training and communicative disorders will now be concentrations of the Health Sciences degree.

Gillette explained that although faculty and students have already been advised of the changes, a final decision has not been made officially.

Last year, the budget review committee recommended looking closely at the two programs. Westbrook and Gillette looked over their projections and sent it to the Courses and Curriculum Committee, which approved it. Their decision then goes to faculty senate, who will look over it and make a recommendation to the provost, who will then make a recommendation to the president of the University. The president’s decision will go to the University of Louisiana System and then finally to the Board of Regents for approval.

“There’s still a pathway for the students to achieve their career goals by these changes that we’re making,” Westbrook said.

If these changes are approved, the University would no longer employ four faculty members.

“Some of the faculty will not be retained. Nobody enjoys that, but we can’t decide not to focus on what we think is best for Nicholls State University, the students and the bayou region,” Gillette said.

The provost evaluates every program at Nicholls every year based on enrollment, revenue and expenses.

“That shouldn’t threaten anybody,” Gillette said, “We’ve got to look at everything. When we see things that we’re doing that either can be done better or perhaps maybe shouldn’t be done at all, we’ve got to act on those things.”

Nicholls is in the process of bringing two new degrees to the University in the next few years: Computer Science and Criminal Justice.
“All we’re doing is responding to what students in the area want,” Gillette said. “We’re not the ones that decided what the students were interested in. To meet the needs of the most students possible means you cant be everything to everybody sometimes.”