The College of Humanities and Social and Behavioral Science will see some changes to its programs in the future because of the preliminary Academic Prioritization released last week.

CHSBS had a total of 97 programs ranked in the report — the most of any college.

Out of these, six programs were placed in Category 1, mainly in the psychology and political science departments.

The categories went from 1 to 5, with 1 meriting extra support and 5 meriting potential cuts of deletion. Those at the top have been working hard and deserve it, said Professor of History Eric Johnson, who helped complete the ranking form.

While English language and literature was ranked in Category 2, the three concentrations, children’s literature, creative writing and world literature were ranked Category 5.

CHSBS Dean Pamela Gates said the undergraduate English concentrations will be reassigned as certificates.

“The main reason behind that is related to the fact that concentrations are not reflected on a student’s transcript, whereas a certificate in creative writing will appear on the transcript,” Gates said in an email.

Jeffrey Bean, professor of English language and literature, said the creative writing concentration is being eliminated, but the gears were already in motion to reconstruct the English major. Instead of concentrations there will be tracks.

“I think the prioritization results could be misleading, as they make it appear that creative writing is being ‘phased out,’” Bean said in an email.

Caitlin Hall, a Mount Pleasant senior majoring in English language and literature, said she thinks the ranking will upset people who wanted to concentrate in a certain subject.

Elk Rapids senior John Priest said since he became a creative writing major, more students have joined every year.

“If it’s growing so much, then why would they de-prioritize the program?” Priest said.

Priest said he enjoys having creative writing workshops mixed in with his literature classes, but eventually there are no more workshop classes to take.

“I’m not taking a workshop class next semester because they filled up so quickly,” Priest said.

However, Bean said the move could strengthen the expanding creative writing community at Central Michigan University, and may allow English majors to have more flexibility for taking workshops.

“Rest assured that all of the current creative writing classes will still be offered for years to come and, in fact, we expect enrollment and interest in our courses to continue to grow,” Bean said.

Gates said the prioritization process was time well spent by the faculty and her office, who held more than 30 hours of hearings to make the hard decisions.

“I believe that we came away from the process with a greater understanding of what we do really well and what we need to do to make sure that the teaching and learning experiences continue to meet the needs of our students,” Gates said.

Most history programs were ranked in Category 2, which Johnson said he felt was a reasonable assessment.

“A two doesn’t make me enthusiastic ... I’d be happy with more support,” Johnson said. “We have been working in a bare bones sort of way as others also have.”

Johnson said most programs who received a 5 ranking are confirming ones that no longer exist.

“If we had a program in reindeer herding and no one had pursued this in 10 years, then it would just be a formal recognition of (programs) that don’t exist,” Johnson said.

The American Ethnic, American Indian, Latin American, European and American studies minor (programs) received fives because of lack of interest or they have been on hiatus, Provost Gary Shapiro wrote in the report.

The history minor for teaching was eliminated from the Michigan Department of Education, and will be changed to Social Studies.

“I don’t think anyone knows exactly what’s in store,” Johnson said.

Tuesday, the Academic Senate took a vote to halt work on the College of Medicine, after it was placed in Category 1.

“It is discouraging to see programs that haven’t even been implemented yet receiving a score of one,” Bean said. “I would like to see CMU invest its resources in the strong programs it already has, especially in an effort to attract and retain the highest quality faculty members and students possible.”