NIU will abolish its dietetics program and cancel several required courses unless funding is made available to hire a full-time faculty member, said Raymond Yang, chairman of the human and family resources department.

Admissions for new applicants for the Coordination Undergraduate Program in dietetics were suspended because the department is uncertain about the program’s future, said Sondra King, coordinator of dietetics, nutrition and food science.

“Interviews were held last Friday because we did not have enough information to cancel them,” King said. “However, we decided to suspend admissions after the interviews,” she said.

Peggy Sullivan, College of Professional Studies dean, said, “We only admit between six and eight students each semester. It (the program) is expensive for them (the students) and expensive for the university.

“I believe we will not admit (new students), and we will consider the deletion of the program,” she said.

The department will offer fewer courses if funding is not provided to hire a full-time faculty member, Yang said. Four required and three elective courses are not listed in the fall class schedule, he said.

“It would not be appropriate for me to list in the catalog those courses if we do not have the money to fund them,” Yang said.

Because two faculty members retired and the vacancies have not been filled, the department does not have the personnel to assume the additional work-load, Yang said.

“We must offer the courses without a decrease in the quality of instruction,” Yang said.

Sullivan called deleting the courses from the fall shedule “an oversight.” Sullivan said she thought the department’s decision not to list the courses was “inappropriate.”

Sullivan said, “We need to offer the required courses.”

However, she said she did not know whether funding would be available to hire an additional faculty member to teach the classes.

Although new students might not be admitted to the program, NIU faculty and administrators agree students already enrolled will be provided with the courses required to complete the program.

Dietetics students are “lockstepped in a four-semester curriculum,” Yang said. Delaying the courses will mean delaying students’ graduation, he said.

“The university has a contractual obligation to offer these courses,” Yang said. “We have a good faith agreement (with the students). We are bound to offer the courses we require students to complete to graduate,” he said.

“The bottom line is the courses will be available,” Yang said. “The jam is, as of today, I don’t know how we’re going to do it.”

Limiting the courses offered impacts students other than those in the dietetics program. Everyone who wants to become a registered dietition will suffer if the courses are canceled, King said. Knowledge garnered from the classes is essential for students who want to pass the qualifying examination, she said.

“Students will not be able to become registered dietitians, which is their career goal,” King said.

Some of the classes are necessary for students planning to pursue a master’s degree in this field at NIU.

“If the (required) courses are not offered, we will not be able to prepare students to meet the requirements for our own master’s degree,” King said.

NIU students have had a 100 percent success rate in passing the Registered Examination in Dietetics, King said. More than 95 percent of the dietetics graduates for the last five years are employed in their discipline, she said.

“We have excellent students,” King said. “They deserve to be able to complete their degrees.”