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Several programs slated for “closure,” identified in the results of Syracuse University’s academic portfolio review, haven’t been active in years.

But because their closure wasn’t reflected in the New York State Education Department’s inventory of registered programs — a list of all academic programs offered at colleges and universities in New York state — they were included in the review’s results, an SU spokesperson told The Daily Orange after it published a list of affected programs on April 2.

The portfolio review was not solely conducted to remove these programs from the state list, the spokesperson told The D.O. on Monday. Rather, while SU’s Office of Academic Affairs was building a “master program inventory” to guide the review, they discovered several programs still listed with the state are no longer offered by the university.

Cleaning up the state list was a “parallel administrative task” that came from the main review, the spokesperson said.

“The Academic Portfolio Review was launched to align Syracuse University’s academic offerings with student demand, academic quality, and institutional mission, the review is fundamentally an academic initiative, not an administrative one,” the spokesperson wrote. “Our goal is to maintain an accurate listing of our programs, and the portfolio review gave us a structured occasion to identify and address these gaps which is why we are working to resolve them now.”

For any college or university to offer an academic program, it must be approved by NYSED. Once a program is approved, it’s added to the IRP. Including a program in the IRP guarantees enrolled students eligibility for state and federal financial aid, licenses and certifications.

Programs listed in the inventory include the fields of the program’s code, title, degree type, the institution it belongs to, the date the program was registered and the last time it was changed in the database.

SU programs that haven’t been edited in the IRP for over 20 years, such as the “Civil Engineer” and “Electrical Engineer” awards — abbreviated as C.E. and E.E. — for computing engineering and electrical engineering, respectively, are listed in the portfolio review as “closing” because of the university’s move to deregister these programs from the IRP.

Duplicate programs that have undergone name or award type changes, such as several Master of Arts programs in Newhouse that were later changed to Master of Science programs, are also included in the review and are listed in the IRP.

SU will begin the deregistration process for these programs within the IRP once a formal request is received from each school or college. The university won’t deregister any programs until it confirms no students are currently enrolled and all previously enrolled students have graduated, the spokesperson said.

SU is proceeding to deregister many of these dormant programs now for a number of reasons, the spokesperson said. Some home colleges planned to close programs but never submitted the “formal notification needed” to deregister, while others put in a formal request to deregister the program, but students were still enrolled at the time.

The university will ultimately deregister all of its “closing” programs listed in the portfolio review once all programs are taught out and students have graduated, the SU spokesperson confirmed.

Published on April 7, 2026 at 1:09 am
Contact Brenne: bsheeh03@syr.edu