Hundreds of Illinois Wesleyan University graduates are closely watching this week’s expected Board of Trustees decisions on the future direction of the institution. A variety of potential cuts and changes will be considered.
Close to a third of the faculty has received pre-termination notices that their programs or positions may end.
More than 800 alumni from more than a half century of classes have signed onto a petition sent to trustees urging them to keep threatened programs and departments such as religion, philosophy, and sociology, including those that were not in earlier faculty recommendations for reduction. Instead, faculty signed off on proposals to "transform" or "sustain" some of those offerings.
Identity
Some graduates have said what they believe is an opaque process has brought to the front of their minds what to do if trustees end cherished programs they view as essential to shaping who they became as young adults.
Karthik Karakala, a 2007 alum, said he wanted to double major in pre-med and art and ended up in psychology and cognitive science, which put him into religion and philosophy. He’s now in medical school.
Karakala said another college would not have given him the attention and the ability to intermingle with departments as he did at IWU.
“I’m going to admit that I had no idea of the sheer interconnectedness and diversity of the programs, let alone how much it was going to benefit me as a person,” said Karakala.
Molly McLay graduated in 2006. She said she was not expected to come in knowing her path and to stick to that path. If so, she would have ended up as a math teacher.
“I found my path to social work because of my passion for writing which I cultivated at Wesleyan as well as my interest and advocacy around gender issues, which is something I don’t know if I ever would have encountered it if I hadn’t gone to IWU and had some of these professors that are now on the chopping block,” said McLay.
McLay said she doubts students can have a liberal arts experience without some of these departments, some of which date to the origins of the university.
“There’s an opportunity to go broad and to go deep. If someone were to offer just a one-off anthropology class, it could not be as it currently is where you have scholars entrenched in the field and have the depth of the field,” she said.
Beyond the coursework, some of the alumni who signed the petition said they formed and have maintained relationships with faculty in those departments. Rachel Paturi, a 2013 graduate, recalled sitting on an evening panel discussion in her first year at IWU. Sociology Department Chair Meghan Burke came to it, long after the teaching day was done.
“And she showed up at that panel and she asked really thoughtful questions about my experience as an Indian American particularly post 9/11. I remember that making such a huge impact. But not only that, I remember Dr. Burke showed up to so many other diversity events on weekends and after classes and making herself available to students of color regardless if they were sociology majors,” said Paturi.
She said if some of the departments close, the tenured faculty would likely be replaced by adjunct professors who have less of a stake in the institution and who would be less available to students to form those relationships.
“It is beyond the classes that these professors teach. They show up for the students in so many other ways, whether its going to events, serving on committees, representing student concerns to the administration. I feel like that level is not really quantifiable,” said Paturi. “A lot of what graduates talk about is being able to engage with professors outside the classroom.”
Paturi’s degree is in business and finance, but she said sociology has shaped her success and competitiveness as an IOS developer at State Farm.
Institutional pressure
IWU went through a year of self-study, as many such institutions have, to position itself to compete for students in a landscape of declining enrollments, demographic changes that present more students of color, first-generation college students, and students from less affluent families. That also is a world in which the humanities and traditional liberal arts subjects have attracted fewer majors than in decades past.
IWU President Georgia Nugent said in a June email to faculty that students already have "voted with their feet."
Alumni consulted for this story said they do not always have a clear idea of what the university should do, but becoming more like the rest of the crowd is not it.
“Regardless of what they do, they are going to have to convince people that there are things other than the school of business which I get why that’s a money maker, and other than the sciences which I invested in myself,” said Karakala.
Indeed, several alumni said IWU should double down on the liberal arts and its distinctiveness in an area that is shrinking in emphasis nationwide.
“One of the things that was so special to me about Wesleyan is when I went there, there was a focus on the multi-talented student or the student who wishes to engage in work in multiple disciplines. That’s why I went there,” said McLay, adding she hasn’t seen messages that welcome and value multi-dimensional students as much as when she was there.
“If they lean into what’s special about them, which I think is the liberal arts experience, and see this is important, rather than going along with the trend. I’ve always seen Wesleyan as someone who wants to stand out from the pack,” said McRay.
“I really think that the way we can really buck the trend is to encourage our STEM students and our business administration students to double majoring or at least minoring if they can. I think that’s something that really differentiates us,” added Paturi.
If alumni really knew what was going on, the graduates said they would be more inclined to speak up.
“I’m not 100% sure what they should do, but I also believe that they should trust a wide variety of alumni that have come out of there over the years and be more transparent about what they are up against, because none of us are unsympathetic towards it.” Said Karakala.
She said some alumni might be able to come up with creative solutions if IWU believes in the job they have done educating those alumni and asks for input.
Paturi also encouraged IWU to make better use of the general education program to expose these students to other ideas. Task force recommendations do include creating a richer first-year experience.
Consequences
Part of the alarm expressed by alumni is because of their perception of a lack of transparency in the IWU process. McLay said she has been a very involved alum, better connected than many. She described herself as an integral part of the Council for IWU Women and multiple regional affinity groups. She said she heard whispers about things being wrong, but not a full case for change being made, and suddenly a third of the faculty received layoff notices.
“I think a lot of us alums are like, 'Wait! What just happened?'” said McLay.
If deep cuts go through during the trustees meeting on Thursday, alumni who signed the petition said their disappointment may create distance.
“I do think alumni investment and engagement will go down. For me personally, for sociology it is one of the few places that Black, brown and queer students are represented in the curriculum. It is very much a safe space for those demographics. And those professors have shown up over a period of years for those students,” said Paturi.
McLay said some of her response will depend on how deep the reductions go. As someone who has given time, talent and treasure since the year after her graduation, she said there is a line and she would have to figure out where that is.
“If all of the faculty given the pre-termination letters are cut, I will not do a single thing for Illinois Wesleyan,” she said.
The administration has said from the start that is not likely to happen. Some faculty would continue teaching courses, even if there were no longer majors in those disciplines. Others might be given other roles. But the alumni who signed the petition said they are worried the changes will alter the university beyond what they recognize and love.
“I’m not sure how they could make me feel connected to that place,” said Karakala.
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