Å struggling department in the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences has been cut because of a decline in enrollment, representing another academic shift in Boston University’s smaller colleges.
Fewer students were enrolling in the rehabilitation counseling department, which has classes that cover similar topics other departments do, said Sargent dean Gloria Waters.
The Board of Trustees approved the decision in July to reshape the college’s programs. The program will formally end in the spring, though undergraduate and graduate students in the program will finish their coursework, Waters said.
“Sargent has far too many programs for the number of faculty and students that we currently have,” Waters said in an email. “We want to make the largest impact on rehabilitation sciences that we can with the resources we have.”
About 1500 students are enrolled in Sargent, one of BU’s smaller schools. In July, President Robert Brown cut the University Professors Program — which has 125 students — as part of his academic plan for the university.
In ending the counseling department, the school removed undergraduate programs in rehabilitation and human services and graduate programs in rehabilitation counseling.
“We need to narrow our focus and reallocate resources in order to enhance a smaller number of key programs,” Waters said.
The programs were lacking students, said Wendy Coster, chairwoman of the occupational therapy and rehabilitation counseling department.
“This program was not attracting many applicants, which made it difficult to support the number of courses needed for the degree,” she said in an email.
While the interest in rehabilitation counseling decreased, other programs in Sargent have been attracting more students, Waters said.
“Enrollment in our health science department has jumped from 180 students in 2004 to 400 last year,” Waters said. “We felt that we needed to align our resources more closely with the current demands of the program.”
Other programs in the college focus on similar areas as rehabilitation counseling, Waters said.
“Mental health is one of the areas of focus in our occupational therapy program,” she said. “In addition, the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, which is part of Sargent College, is world-renowned for its work with people with psychiatric disorders.”
There are no plans to replace the program, Coster said.
“The college is discussing the possibility of developing an undergraduate concentration for students interested in the applied behavioral areas of the health sciences, but there is no firm plan at this time,” she said.
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