As part of Portland State University’s Bridge to the Future initiative, the Programmatic Revitalization and Curricular Stewardship component is designed with students at the core of our decision-making process. This initiative ensures that PSU’s academic programs and instructional capacity are aligned with student needs, market demands, and the financial realities facing the university. By optimizing our academic portfolio, we aim to maintain a vibrant, sustainable institution that supports both the academic success and personal growth of our students, while also securing the university’s financial stability.
Objectives of Programmatic Revitalization and Curricular Stewardship
This component of our financial sustainability plan aims to ensure that, as a whole, PSU’s academic program portfolio addresses the following needs:
- Student-centered: The portfolio offers a high quality, academically rigorous education that is free from barriers to degree completion.
- Alignment with student and employer demand: The portfolio attracts students by providing social and economic mobility in the job market.
- Advances our strategic plan: The portfolio supports accomplishment of strategic imperatives and aligns with our guiding commitments.
- Supports financial sustainability: As a whole, the program portfolio attracts sufficient tuition and state revenue to cover the costs associated with providing high quality education.
Actions for revitalizing our Academic Portfolio:
- Manage vacancies that come from retirements and resignations.
- Alter academic programs and service areas in order to sustain, reduce, or invest for growth and efficiency.
- Commit to curricular stewardship by improving our scheduling grid, responding to course waitlists, and coordinating summer programming. Also working to identify courses and curricular pathways that overlap; that may over or under enroll, that have high DFW rates, that demonstrate equity gaps in completion, and that inadvertently create barriers to graduation for our students.
- Leverage market and curricular data, as well as guidance from our faculty experts.
Process for Programmatic Changes
The process for determining programmatic changes and curricular adjustments will be data-driven and collaborative, involving a wide range of university community members and subject matter experts.
- Data Analysis and Open Discussions: A series of open discussions, including a data open house and a town hall meeting, will provide opportunities for faculty and staff to learn about and discuss the data being used to evaluate programs.
- Unit-Level Targets: Deans and dean equivalents will receive financial sustainability targets for helping close PSU’s budget gap.
- College-level data analysis: Department leaders and college administrators, in consultation with department members, will review program and course data in order to improve curricular and co-curricular opportunities for students.
- Programmatic Recommendations: Deans and dean equivalents will provide recommendations for programmatic changes and estimates of how they will meet their targets to the Provost. They will work as a team to build collective solutions to addressing the overall Academic Affairs budget target.
- Review and Decision-Making: The Provost will present the deans' recommendations to the President, who will make the final decision regarding program changes. Throughout this process, the President will confer with the Executive Council and ensure that decisions align with the strategic imperatives outlined in the 2024 strategic plan: Future in Focus.
- Workforce Adjustments: Any actions will follow required Faculty Senate and collective bargaining processes, including AAUP’s Articles 18 and 22, which govern the reduction of instructional faculty.
- Public Communication: Leadership will maintain transparency and equal access by sharing final decisions about program changes with the campus community and providing the data and analyses that led to these decisions.
Follow our progress on the Academic Affairs webpage, Financial Sustainability Updates.