Claire Larsen chose to major in history at Indiana University Indianapolis before knowing what she wanted to do after college.
But everything changed her sophomore year when she took a religious ethics class examining power, sex and money.
“I realized, as much as I love history and learning about the past,” she said, “there’s so much that’s happening now and continues to happen in the future that is so connected to religion.”
Larsen, who is now 23, changed her major to religious studies. She spent the next two years learning about faith traditions and religion’s role in American culture — knowledge she uses in her career today.
Her major, though, is no longer available for new students. That bachelor’s degree in religious studies is one of over 400 academic programs that have been eliminated or suspended at public Indiana colleges due to low enrollment. At IU Indy, over a third of degrees being eliminated, phased out or merged are in the School of Liberal Arts.
Though humanities programs have been shrinking at colleges nationwide, the recent cuts in Indiana come as a result of a last-minute addition that lawmakers made during this spring’s state budget talks.
Their new law means schools now need permission from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to continue offering degrees that don’t graduate a certain number of students.
Lawmakers say they intervened to make state universities more efficient and to ensure that the degrees that are being offered are in line with jobs the state is looking to fill. It’s part of a broader effort from state leaders to address Indiana’s shortage of skilled workers. Another bill passed this session requires colleges to provide data on labor market demand, job placement rates and graduates’ salaries to the state commission.
In a July 24 meeting, officials from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education supported the major cuts. They said scaling back the number of programs will make it easier for students to decide what to pursue from Indiana’s 1,800 majors — which they hope will lead more Hoosier students to pursue college.
Dan Peterson, chair of the commission, said that it’s important that degrees offered at Indiana colleges are tied to “market opportunities” for students. But, he said, the agency is looking beyond enrollment at the workforce opportunities for certain degrees.
“From a graduation standpoint, there are degrees that have very low volumes but that are critical in certain industry fields and certain applications,” Peterson said at the meeting. “That’s where the nuance comes in — making sure that it’s not just a blunt look at the number but that it’s contingent on the degree itself and what the opportunities are for students.”
Humanities professors say they understand the reality of the situation, especially because their degree programs are broader in scope and not as connected to specific career fields. But, they say, their programs carry value. They teach valuable skills like writing, communication and analysis.
But, because lawmakers acted so quickly, some professors feel they were robbed of the opportunity to adequately communicate the effect these changes would have on faculty and students.
The new requirements also leave faculty unsure what their future will look like — especially because programs will need to go through the enrollment review process annually.
“They’ve spent their lives working on this and teaching it, and now suddenly to say, ‘Well, it’s not worthy of our blessing any longer,” said Phil Goff, president of the IU Indianapolis Faculty Council. “That makes you stop and think, ‘Well, what have I been doing?’”
Why interest in liberal arts is changing
Debate about the role of liberal arts in higher education isn’t new.
Following the Great Recession of 2008, students across the country started to choose majors more directly tied to careers, such as engineering or health care.
And, in Indiana, students have increasingly taken more liberal arts credits in high school as part of their Advanced Placement or dual credit programs.
Rachel Wheeler, who served as chair of IU Indianapolis’ religious studies program, said that those classes, when taken in college, are a way for students to get interested in majors they wouldn’t have otherwise pursued.
With fewer students in those classes, that pathway is shrinking.
“People don’t head off to college thinking, ‘This is what I want to do,’” Wheeler said. “But if they’re taking our courses early on in their career, (they’re) like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know you could do this. This is really interesting.’”
How is Indiana responding to the change?
IU’s spending appears to match the trend away from liberal arts studies in college. Between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, the budget for liberal arts at IU Indianapolis declined by over 40%. At the same time, the university has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in STEM.
“Historically, budgets have been tied to enrollment,” IU spokesperson Mark Bode told Mirror Indy.
Liberal arts faculty were already taking steps to adjust their programs. Those changes include starting a new interdisciplinary studies department which combines four liberal arts programs into one in hopes of combating declining enrollment.
Then, Indiana lawmakers stepped in. Under the new law, a bachelor’s degree program must graduate 15 students on average over three years to continue to be offered. A master’s degree program needs seven graduates, on average, over the previous three years.
Other states have made recent changes, too. Ohio recently passed a similar law that requires its public colleges to eliminate majors that enroll five or fewer students. In Utah, universities are able to “earn back” state budget funding by voluntarily slashing low-enrollment programs in favor of those that are considered more workforce-aligned, such as business and engineering.
IU Indy Chancellor Latha Ramchand told Mirror Indy her campus is focused on majors like health care and technology that open up job opportunities for graduates.
“Our students are smart,” Ramchand said. “They vote with their feet. They will opt for programs which will ensure them career opportunities.”
Bode did not answer questions about how IU plans to balance STEM with liberal arts education going forward. Ramchand, who studied economics in undergrad, said that communication and critical thinking skills are essential in making students employable.
“Liberal arts always will, and must, have a place in our curriculum,” Ramchand said.
Degree program is a loss for the Deaf community
It’s not just about pride or keeping jobs. Faculty say the loss of certain academic programs will harm the greater Indianapolis community.
IU Indianapolis is currently the only college in the city to offer a bachelor’s degree in American Sign Language and English interpreting. That program, however, was eliminated due to low enrollment. Current students will be able to finish out their degrees.
The program graduated six students in the 2023-24 school year, according to university data Mirror Indy obtained through a public records request. Between 2021 and 2024, the ASL bachelor’s degree program had an average of 10 graduates each year/semester — falling short of the state’s requirement of 15.
Despite its comparatively small number of graduates, IU Indianapolis associate professor Becca Niethammer said, the interpreter program filled a workforce need.
There’s a severe shortage of ASL interpreters nationwide, and Marion County was home to over 78,000 deaf and hard of hearing people in 2020, according to state data. Niethammer worries that eliminating the program will compound the shortage of interpreters in Indianapolis.
“That’s what a lot of organizations are concerned about right now,” she said. “This is the only public college (with this program). This is the only one in Central Indiana, where we have the largest Deaf community. How is that going to impact our access?”
Bode, the IU spokesperson, did not respond to Mirror Indy’s emailed questions about the university cutting the ASL program.
Arts, humanities degrees are valuable, alums say
Faculty say liberal arts degrees still matter and can be a pathway into jobs and graduate programs, such as law school. In 2024, about a quarter of law school applicants were arts and humanities majors, according to data the Law School Admission Council provided to Mirror Indy.
For Kyle Kingen, enrolling as an art history major at the Herron School of Art and Design was the fulfillment of a lifelong love of art, architecture and museums.
After graduating in 2020, he stayed involved with Herron, where he works as a circulation and communications supervisor.
Kingen’s proud of his degree in art history and what he’s accomplished since, including his recent acceptance to grad school to study library science. But he’s also disappointed that future Herron students won’t get to share his experience. The art history program he completed was among the degrees IU Indianapolis plans to cut.
“There has to be another student out there that is like me, where they’re like, ‘No, I’m gonna study art history and I’m ready to learn,’” Kingen said. “It is really just a disservice.”
“Degrees like religious studies put you in a position to learn about other people and get outside of yourself, your community, your religion and your beliefs.”
— Claire Larsen
As for Larsen, she’s dismayed to think about a future where students won’t get to experience the religious studies program in the same way she did.
Larsen graduated in 2024 with her bachelor’s degree in religious studies. She works in communications for the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at IU Indianapolis, and has a part-time sales job at Inner Path, a store selling spiritual books, as well as crystals, jewelry and religious objects.
At both of her jobs, Larsen uses the skills from her studies to build relationships and communicate with people. But, she said, learning about religion and faith traditions is beneficial to all students, even those who aren’t pursuing a religious studies major.
“That’s what so many of these programs are meant to do,” she said. “It’s just meant to make more well-rounded humans, people with critical thinking skills and ways to question things.”
A correction was made on Aug. 12: A previous version of this story misstated the threshold of students that have to graduate in order for a master’s degree program to continue to be offered.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Claire Rafford covers higher education for Mirror Indy in partnership with Open Campus. Contact Claire by email claire.rafford@mirrorindy.org, on most social media @clairerafford or on Signal 317-759-0429.
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