14-05-2025
Kennesaw State students protest at regents offices over the end of Black studies, philosophy majors
KSU students and others protest outside the University System of Georgia offices in Atlanta over the end to majors including Black studies and philosophy. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
Dozens of Kennesaw State University students and others gathered outside University System of Georgia offices in Atlanta Wednesday to ask the Board of Regents not to eliminate majors in Black studies, philosophy and technical communication.
The university announced last month that it plans to eliminate the three majors, citing low enrollment numbers.
Kennesaw State University spokeswoman Tammy DeMel said the programs did not meet the graduation standards required by all majors.
'Undergraduate programs are expected to maintain a three-year rolling average of at least 10 graduates per year. The Black Studies major has a three-year graduation average of 5.7 degrees per year, while Philosophy averages 6.3 and Technical Communications 7.7,' DeMel said.
'The programs underwent a multi-year remediation process, which included annual improvement plans focused on increasing enrollment,' she added. 'As the required benchmarks were not met, the University deactivated these programs.'
DeMel said the school will ensure current students majoring in those subjects will have the opportunity to complete their degrees, and courses from those subjects will continue to be offered as minors or electives.
That wasn't much comfort for students outside the offices Wednesday, some of whom disputed the university's numbers. Students characterized the move as preemptively folding to pressure from the state and federal governments.
President Donald Trump's administration has threatened to investigate and withhold federal funding from universities that promote 'diversity, equity and inclusion.' Kennesaw State has been moving forward with plans to shut down resource centers for groups like LGBTQ students and students of color.
The Georgia Senate passed a bill this year that would have banned DEI programs and policies from all state public schools and universities, but the measure did not get a vote in the House.
Simran Mohanty, a third-year KSU student majoring in sociology on the pre-law track, said philosophy classes have prepared her to study law.
'Philosophy helps a lot with critical and analytical thinking,' she said. 'You typically have a lot of readings to do, so you have to be able to critically analyze the readings, which is really good for pre-law students who need to read legal briefs or long case documents such as that, and it also helps to have analytical thinking of being able to analyze those readings and apply it to real-world context, practical context. So philosophy has been monumental in my studies.'
KSU student Jacob Waller, who is seeking a double major in philosophy and psychology, said he fears doing away with the majors would prevent students who want to dip their toes in the field from doing so.
'You're cutting institutional support to the major so that all of the rigor and the quality of the classes as it is currently – which is very incredible due to our four professors, we only have four people in the department but they're all incredible and work very hard to make sure that the sanctity of the space is preserved – the quality of those classes is going to diminish significantly by getting rid of the major because you're cutting most of the systemic support for it.'
Stephan Sellers, a third-year mechatronics major who has taken philosophy and Black studies courses, said they have been some of the most important of his college career.
'Those courses teach us not only who we are, but the history of our diaspora from the African continent,' he said. 'And those studies also teach us that we have a voice, we have power, and so with these studies being taken away, I can see that some of the students coming in will miss out on very vital parts of their education.'
The Georgia Board of Regents is set to meet Thursday, but a vote on the majors is not scheduled on the agenda.
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