SAN ANTONIO – On Feb. 7, close to 200 Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) students received an email saying their current degree path would soon come to an end.
“Your field of study is one area that will be impacted,” an email from the university stated. “We will not be accepting new students into the program starting in Fall 2025.”
The university, on San Antonio’s West Side, enrolls approximately 2,100 students. That means nearly 10% of the student body were affected by these changes.
On Friday, a OLLU representative confirmed to KSAT that 16 degree programs were discontinued, leaving affected students less than six months to realign their academic plans.
Twenty-six faculty members, a mix of tenured and non-tenured professors, were affected by the changes. Nineteen of which were left without a job. Five found another role within the school and one professor retired, according to OLLU officials.
The following bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degree programs are no longer offered at the university:
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Biomathematics
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Chemistry
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Chemical Biology
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Drama
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English
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History
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Math
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Comparative Mexican American Studies
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Music
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Political Science
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Sociology
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Spanish
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Theology
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MFA Creative Writing
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Master’s in Organizational Leadership
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PhD Leadership Studies
While the degree paths have been discontinued, students can still take courses within the subject areas for related majors, the school said.
For example, while students can not major in Chemistry, courses in Organic and General Chemistry remain open for students on other degree paths.
Still, the changes have left students either switching degree plans or transferring to a different university.
On Feb. 26, fourth-year doctoral student Lorie Hidalgo sent emails to the university after saying she was “blindsided” by cuts affecting the leadership studies program.
Hidalgo told KSAT in March that she felt unsatisfied with the university’s responses.
“These cuts happen,” Teresa Niño, OLLU’s Chief Marketing Officer said Friday. Niño said the university began discussions on the degree discontinuations in 2023 due to low enrollment.
“We had to take some measures, some business decisions,” she said. “We have to be financially responsible.”
Affected students were provided one-on-one appointments with advisors but did not receive financial assistance to offset the costs of class changes or transfers, Niño said.
“There wasn’t a matter of a refund or anything because they were able to finish out the courses that they had paid for,” Niño said in regard to the students’ spring semester courses.
Niño said that no further program discontinuations are expected.
“We believe that with the actions, again, business decisions that we’ve taken, the viability of the university is going to be healthier and stronger,” she said.
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