Whether or not Iowa State officially makes or loses money from the Women and Gender Studies Program remains unclear.
“Yes, we do make money; we’re so small in terms of the number of faculty that we have versus the number of students who pay to take courses that we do end up a budget-positive program,” Dr. Kelly Winfrey, Director of the Women and Gender Studies Program, said.
Director of Communications for LAS, Amy Juhnke, explained that programs earn revenue for their college based on how many students have the program as their primary major and how many student credit hours are taught in the program courses.
“Keep in mind, however, that in many cases the credit hours – if they were not being earned in a specific program – would generally be earned by another program in the same college,” Juhnke said via email communication. “Most students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, for example, would take other courses in the same college. In this way, it is difficult to say whether a program “makes money,” since there are a finite number of student credit hours available each year based on total enrollment.”
Last semester, the Provost’s Office recommended discontinuing the women and gender studies (WGS) major. At the undergraduate level, four other programs are under review.
The decision came after the Iowa Board of Regents conducted a Workforce Alignment Review focusing on majors with fewer than 25 students. WGS currently has around 19 students in the major.
On average, the WGS classes have around 30 people in the in-person sections. The online classes tend to have more students, with roughly 55 or more students.
Some WGS classes are cross-listed, meaning they’re co-hosted with another department. For example, the Women in Politics course is cross-listed as POLS 3850 and WGS 3850, which opens up the class to people not just in the WGS major but to all majors for credit within their department. Most of the WGS courses are cross-listed. However, they do have a few of their own classes.
The WGS department drafted a response that stated how WGS does meet the workforce requirements. The workplace skills that WGS develops in students include soft skills, work ethic and dependability.
“A lot of our classes can seem out of left field, but a lot of them teach us critical thinking, and a lot of our exams are papers that require you to use critical thinking skills,” Sydney Casey, a senior studying women and gender studies and journalism and president of Tri Iota Women and Gender Studies Honor Society, said.
Casey went on to explain that she figured out her future career path and goals with the mentorship of WGS faculty.
“WGS really gave me a purpose… making those connections and figuring out what I want to do with my life, I don’t think I would have been able to do that without WGS, honestly,” Casey said. “I’m looking at going into nonprofit work. I really want to help people.”
Tri Iota Women and Gender Studies Honor Society works with the community through projects such as making comfort kits for local clinics to distribute to individuals undergoing invasive procedures.
Regardless of the looming discontinuation of WGS, Tri Iota plans to remain as a student organization.
“We’re just going to become louder than we were before because we all understand how important Women’s and Gender Studies is,” Casey said.
If WGS is discontinued as a major, it will not affect students already pursuing the degree. At this time, students can still enroll in a WGS degree. The WGS minor will also not be affected.