Dance Movement Therapy and Early Childhood Education programs are no longer going to be offered at the college beginning in the Fall 2019 semester, according to a Feb. 8 email to the Faculty Senate from Interim Senior Vice President and Provost Suzanne Blum Malley. 

“…We will move forward with closing these programs permanently and continuing to teach out each program for currently enrolled students. Our faculty colleagues, however, will maintain their positions as tenured and tenure-track faculty at Columbia College Chicago,” the email stated. 

President and CEO Kwang-Wu Kim gave former Provost Stan Wearden the responsibility of determining potential tenure positions for tenured faculty following program closures, according to Blum Malley.

As a result, Kim and Wearden did not request that the Board of Trustees eliminate the tenured and tenure-track faculty positions. Instead, Kim and Blum Malley are working together to find alternate teaching assignments.

Dance movement therapy faculty proposed a plan to grow the creative arts therapies programs, but were rejected, according to the email.

“While the proposal has many strengths, there is not sufficient evidence that the programs will be viable at Columbia College Chicago, both in terms [of] future enrollment potential and the very different curricular infrastructure such programs require for viability and sustained quality,” Blum Malley said.

Story developments to come.