EWU trustees vote unanimously to end gender studies, urban planning and 7 other majors

Nine Eastern Washington University majors – including urban and regional planning and gender, women’s and sexuality studies – will be discontinued following two unanimous votes by school leadership Thursday.

The decision, made by the board of trustees following recommendations from the provost and president, comes after months of petitions, public testimonies and official faculty recommendations in favor of continuing the degrees, including a visit from Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown in February in support of the women’s studies program.

The programs discontinued include master’s degrees in interdisciplinary studies and applied math; and bachelor’s degrees in data science, English as a second language, applied technology, gender, women’s and sexuality studies, international affairs, urban and regional planning, applied technology, and early childhood and special education.

Leading up to the vote, gender studies and regional planning alumni testified to the value of their education in the programs.

“Urban and regional planning is super important for cities, counties, special districts and many others because it helps us plan for future generations. Since I’ve graduated, our state has doubled in size,” Hal Hart, an EWU alum and current city planner for the King County city of Black Diamond, said. “There are plenty of jobs available, and I think it fits terrifically within the future of the university in so many ways.”

Regional planning professor Margo Hill said the program specifically helps small towns across the Palouse plan as part of the Growth Management Act.

“We are the exact definition of a polytechnic,” she said. “If you look at the 50 years our program has been in place, we have done projects in communities all across the city – the Perry District, the Garland District, all across the region. And, we go in and help cities when there’s wildfires, and we are extremely well respected.”

Provost Lorenzo Smith initially identified the nine programs for review based on their graduating an average of under 10 students annually over the past five years (or, five graduates, in the case of master’s programs). There were initially 11 on the list, but bachelor’s in mathematics and anthropology were removed from the pool early on due to “enrollment projections and curricular considerations.”

Two groups of faculty – the university’s faculty senate, along with a designated program review committee – separately recommended that the degree programs in applied technology; gender, women’s and sexuality studies; international affairs; and urban and regional planning be continued. Faculty leadership in the English as a second language, data science and applied mathematics programs told The Spokesman-Review previously that their departments intend to preserve the education in other programs moving forward.

Faculty organization president Ginelle Hustrulid said that in meetings with Smith, “there was always problem-solving,” but ultimately, some disagreements persisted.

Smith said during his presentation to the board of trustees Thursday that his door has always been open to staff, students, faculty and the community.

On June 18, Smith recommended to President Shari McMahan that all nine programs be discontinued, citing consideration of stewardship, resource allocations, strategic value, student demand, course demand and institutional mission. McMahan passed this recommendation on to the board of trustees on the same day.

“I just want to say this is hard,” board member Jay Manning said during the meeting Thursday. “It really hurts to have to make this decision.”

Manning said that urban and regional planning, in particular, meets the institutional mission and the demand of the community, but “we’re struggling with the budget. We’re struggling with numbers of students generally.”

Of all nine programs, urban and regional planning had the highest number of declared, incoming freshman students for the fall semester: two.

“I don’t understand it, because I think it’s a major that there are many jobs out there,” Manning said. “And it’s unfortunate, but if we only have two students coming into the program, I just can’t find it within myself to disagree with the recommendation of the provost that’s in front of the board.”

Board member Alexis Alexander said that he has heard the “profound support for gender, women’s and sexuality studies” loud and clear.

“We have to be prudent and focus on what’s right and what makes sense for our continued existence and what the needs are today,” he said. “And as a result, we will be making a challenging decision today.”

The board voted unanimously to discontinue all programs up for review.

Hustrulid said that the low student enrollment in the discontinued degrees became apparent to her for the first time during the faculty’s program review.

“As a faculty member, I focus on teaching my courses the best I can teach them,” she said.

But having classes full of dedicated students doesn’t mean that those students will major in the field, or even graduate. Hustrulid called it a “complex logistical problem” that has been exacerbated by already dwindling college enrollment rates.

In fall of 2025, EWU had just under 10,000 enrolled students.

“My hope is that the minors and in-demand courses are preserved,” she said. “And that students have the opportunity to receive the education that they’ve come to expect from EWU.”

Pui-Yan Lam, a professor of sociology and justice studies who previously led the faculty organization, said that faculty members often do not have the resources to attract more students to their programs, even if they have ideas on how to do so.

“Our main role is teacher and researcher. We can’t go recruit as much as we want because of other responsibilities,” she said. “Its really sad that we are trying our best, but sometimes what we suggest to admin is not listened to and not supported. And that gets in way of getting more students and supporting them to graduation.”

She further said that it is “puzzling” that the newly branded “polytechnic” university would cut programs with such strong applied components and clear career paths.

All discontinued majors have teach-out plans for enrolled students, and the courses that made up the majors are – for the most part – going to continue being offered. The Women’s and Gender Education Center on campus will also remain operational, and two minors will remain available within the department.

Jessi Willis has been an EWU faculty member teaching gender, women’s and sexuality studies courses for 16 years. Willis, who uses the pronoun ‘they,’ said that it is difficult for academic minors to survive without a major due to student limitations and financial aid requirements. They are also concerned about whether the center and minors will receive future investment from the university.

“I’ve committed my life to this field. I have my doctorate in women’s studies and the work remains as important as it has ever been,” Willis said. “It’s a tough time, but we will persist and continue to do this work even if the structures that allow us to do it change. We are committed to it.”

Director of Urban and Regional Planning Jason Scully said that the loss of the planning major will put “more onus on graduates” from the University of Washington and Western Washington University to meet the region’s planning demands.

“Urban planning is vital and needed for the health and well-being of communities,” he said.

The discrepancy between the recommendations made by faculty and the actions by university leadership left Lam frustrated. She said there was a similar result following a two-year resource allocation effort from 2022 to 2024. Faculty morale has been low at the university since the allocation, she said, and some worry that if they speak up against leadership, theirs will be the next selected for a program review.

“It seems the administration just checks a box and says they went through the process,” she said. “But the recommendations were not really taken into consideration, and it was just based on one metric, which was the number of students that graduated from the program, and not a more holistic look at the program.”

Program reviews are commonplace in higher education, and Smith said during the board meeting that EWU did not have a consistent, annual process in place when he was appointed last year.

“I just want to thank the faculty, the staff and the board for their patience during this very difficult process,” he said. “But I think that this is something that we need to continue to do in the interest of students.”

This report has been updated to reflect that Hustrulid first noticed some majors’ enrollment numbers were low during the program review by faculty.