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Sophomore Heidi Khuu admits she doesn’t know much about Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. But next year, she’ll enroll in the school, after her human dynamics program moved out of the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics.

As part of the the university’s plan to move all four human dynamics programs out of Falk, students in the affected programs — including Khuu — learned about the future of their majors from a Wednesday SU News release.

Khuu, a public health major on the pre-med track, said she felt relieved to learn which SU college would house her program. But she and other human dynamics students told The Daily Orange they have some hesitations about their programs’ moves.

“They didn’t know where they were going to place us at first, so this was a little bit alarming and scary to me,” Khuu said. “Now, I just don’t necessarily know if public health fits into Maxwell.”

In SU’s original April announcement that it would remove human dynamics from Falk and rename the college, the university did not state where it planned to relocate the four programs — marriage and family therapy, human development and family science, social work and public health.

The announcement left Falk students speculating about where their major might end up, Khuu said. She said she thought her major would end up in the College of Arts and Sciences, as it’s home to most of SU’s STEM programs.

Khuu said she’s worried that as a Maxwell student, she won’t have as much access to science, technology, engineering and mathematics resources – especially the research laboratories and job opportunities – that she had access to while in Falk.

Michelle Finkielsztein, a junior studying human development and family science, said she was disappointed at the prospect of losing the community she has built within Falk. She said Falk was one of the main reasons she chose to apply to SU and was looking forward to graduating with a Falk degree. Because the change will go into effect in fall 2025, her diploma will be from Arts and Sciences.

Finkielsztein said she didn’t expect the changes to Falk to happen “so soon” and felt surprised that SU made the announcement when it did. She said she’ll miss the tight-knit feeling within the human dynamics community.

At the time of SU’s April announcement, SU faculty, staff and students in these programs told The D.O. they were dissatisfied with the communication of the decision.

Current students — including senior public health major Penelope Lee — said they believe these communication issues continued into Wednesday’s announcement.

Lee switched to a public health major in the spring semester of her sophomore year after previously studying chemistry. She said she quickly adapted to being a Falk student and developed a strong relationship with her academic advisor. When she first heard that the public health program might move to Maxwell, Lee said she was uncertain whether the program would still have the same close-knit atmosphere.

Lee said a guest from the Falk College Advisory Board visited one of her classes about a week before SU’s Wednesday announcement. She said her classmates were initially upset about the decision to move the program to Maxwell and claimed SU did not seek student input before making the decision. Despite having an open conversation that day, she said the program’s members still felt hurt after previously being left “in the dark.”

SU’s Human Dynamics Task Force, which was tasked with developing a report of recommendations for the human dynamics programs, did not include any student members. The university collected feedback from students and other campus community members during multiple town halls at the end of the spring semester.

“I think everyone thinks this was the best decision, but nobody wanted it to happen,” Lee said.

Despite her initial frustration, Lee said she has since realized that Maxwell would be a good fit for public health, as an understanding of policy is important in the field. As a senior, the change won’t affect her personally, but she said she’s optimistic that it will benefit future students entering the program.

Similarly, Faith Eberst, a first-year graduate student in social work, said she believes the School of Education, where her major is being transferred, is a better fit.

Since she’s studying in a year-long program, Eberst will not be impacted by the change. But, having earned an undergraduate degree in social work from SU, she said she felt “relieved” that current students could get closure after waiting to find out where their departments would be moved.

“Knowing that the social workers and the other students from the other programs will have a good place to go was reassuring,” Eberst said.

All four human dynamics programs will move out of Falk effective July 1, 2025. SU plans to have the human dynamics students matriculated into their respective new colleges by the start of the fall 2025 semester. The change will not affect students graduating from these majors this semester or in spring 2025, according to Wednesday’s announcement.

“I respect Falk’s decision. I have nothing against the school,” Finkielsztein said. “I’m just sad that I’m leaving.”

Published on November 18, 2024 at 12:20 am

Contact Julia: jmboehni@syr.edu