Arizona State University President Michael Crow sent personalized letters to all who had participated in the campaign to keep their Clinical Laboratory Science/ Medical Technology program open:

Over the past several years, Arizona State University has made substantial commitments to the health care field through enhanced undergraduate and graduate programs (e.g., Nursing, Biomedical Informatics, Translational Neuroscience, etc.) that serve the medical and health care community. Tuition covers less than 25% of the cost of these programs, but ASU chose to grow enrollment despite the high cost, investing over $6 million to expand its Nursing program for example. Given recent and additional imminent reductions in state funding, ASU faces tough decisions in assessing which of its programs are most viable in terms of their centrality to the strategic mission of the academic units, college, and university, cost per student, level of degree production, and student viability in the career path.

The Clinical Laboratory Sciences (CLS) program, which offers a B.S. degree in Clinical Lab Sciences, has been an accredited program within ASU. For several years, ASU has discussed the viability of the CLS program and, not unlike the 2004 decision of the University of Arizona to discontinue its medical technology program due to resource constraints, ASU has concluded that its program requires substantial resources relative to the cost of faculty per student, and the laboratory materials and facilities needed to meet its accreditation standards.

At present, the CLS program consists of four clinical faculty and nine faculty associates. The total faculty cost for the program is over $330,000 annually. This is the instructor cost and does not include other real costs associated with administering the program. The CLS program produces only 12-15 graduates per year. In addition, accreditation standards require limited enrollments in the program, thus driving up the cost of delivery per student even higher. This past year, the program received only 19 new applications.

Due to space constraints on the Tempe campus, and because of the applied nature of the degree, consideration was given over the past few years to incorporating the program into the Phoenix Biomedical campus or relocating it to the Polytechnic campus. However, it was assessed that such plans would require more than $1,000,000 in new laboratory construction and/facility renovation in order to adequately administer the program to undergraduate students on either campus. Like other states with similar programs, funding from local hospitals could subsidize the continuation of the program and this idea is being examined.

Courses in the major will be offered through Spring 2011. Students currently eligible for upper division CLS courses may complete the degree by working with an advisor to plan their courses. Students not eligible for upper division courses should work with an advisor to explore related majors at ASU.

In summary, ASU continues its overall strategic commitment to health care related programs. However, with specific reference to the CLS program, the dramatic decrease in state resources has forced ASU to re-evaluate and refocus its efforts on other university health care related strategic commitments.

Sincerely,

Michael M. Crow
President
president.asu.edu