During a series of program cuts in April 2024 that aimed at balancing Drake University’s operating budget, Drake Faculty Senate voted to retain five programs that were recommended for cuts. These included the Master of Accounting, Master of Public Administration, the astronomy major, the rhetoric and media studies major and minor, and the physics major. 

“Periodically reviewing our programs and curriculum is a necessary process to ensure we’re meeting the needs of our current and future students — while also operating sustainably,” reads Drake’s page on academic and curricular changes. 

Two years later, only two of these programs remain at Drake. Due to budget cuts, declining enrollment, and a lack of professors, many departments had to make the decision to cut programs in the last few years despite the earlier vote.

Physics and astronomy majors

Both of the majors within the Physics and Astronomy department were voted to be retained in 2024, but only the physics major remains today.

They were both considered for elimination because up to 50% of students who started the programs did not complete them and they had very low enrollment, said Matthew Zwier, chair of the physics department.

One of the factors that went into the elimination of the astronomy program was that the department’s only full-time astronomy professor took early retirement, Zwier said. As a result, the department initiated the proceedings to shut down the major during the spring 2025 semester.

The physics major, on the other hand, was restructured.

There were legitimate concerns about the effectiveness of the physics program and if it should be cut as well, Zwier said.

Once it was decided the physics major should be retained, the physics department decided to offer three different physics tracks in order to better serve their students, Zwier said. Now students can study physics on a biological physics, computational physics, or just “physics” track.

While the restructuring was time-consuming, Zwier said it was necessary and was done with the support of Drake’s administration.

“If someone says that the administration tried to kill physics, as far as I can tell, that is categorically untrue,” Zwier said. “In fact, both the dean’s office and the provost’s office have been enormously supportive in making sure that we can continue to offer physics in a meaningful way.”

Rhetoric and media studies program

In Spring 2024, the English department voted to eliminate the rhetoric and media studies major and minor due to budget cuts, said English department chair Jeff Karnicky. At that time, there was one tenured professor teaching rhetoric courses. The Board of Trustees voted to eliminate the program in Spring 2025.

“Our plan was that the rhetoric faculty member was still part of our English department, and we included a rhetoric and media studies [class] requirement for our majors,” Karnicky said. “We thought that would be the way that rhetoric would work going forward, that the one person would teach some rhetoric courses and then meet the requirements for our class.”

After the Board of Trustees vote, the president’s office sent a termination letter to the rhetoric faculty, Faber McAllister.

“Faber McAllister was tenured, so we were surprised when their job was terminated because it really is not usual practice for a tenured faculty member to lose their job in this way,” Karnicky said.

As a result, rhetoric classes could no longer be taught at Drake, Karnicky said. To help students currently enrolled as rhetoric and media studies majors still graduate with their intended degrees, the English department made teach-out plans in which students would take English classes instead of rhetoric classes.

The final five rhetoric and media studies students will be graduating at the end of this semester. One of these students is Anastasia Conerty.

Conerty said she wasn’t surprised when she found out the program was being terminated, but she was disappointed.

“With so much misinformation nowadays, we have more and more uses of [artificial intelligence] when it comes to the communication field,” Conerty said. “It just really worries me that the University would want to cut a program that encourages media literacy.”

While Conerty is sad knowing the rhetoric and media program will really be over once she graduates, she said she hopes Drake will revisit the program during budget discussions in the future.

“It is so important for this time that we’re living in that people take advantage and learn more about rhetoric and what that means for themselves, but also what it can mean for improving societies,” said Conerty.

Masters programs

According to Zimpleman College of Business’s page on the Master of Accounting degree, the program has not accepted new students since the 2024-25 academic year. This program helped students prepare to sit for the Certified Public Accountant exam. However, the college recommends that students instead pursue a Master of Business Administration or a Master of Science in Business Analytics. Both of these programs also allow students to sit for the CPA exam.

The Master of Public Administration is still offered as a completely online program.