BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Thirty academic programs at Bowling Green State University will be reconfigured or suspended beginning with the spring 2027 semester, the university announced Friday afternoon, in a restructuring first reported by BG Falcon Media, the university’s student news organization.
Current students, and students enrolling in the programs for the fall 2026 semester, will not be affected, according to the university announcement cited by BG Falcon Media. The changes apply to students attempting to enroll beginning in spring 2027, and the university says reconfigured programs will come with alternative options based on similar or related fields of study.
Twenty programs are listed for reconfiguration, BG Falcon Media reported. They include bachelor’s degrees in art history, Asian studies, economics, film studies, French, geology, classical civilization, German, Latin, Russian, philosophy and Spanish; a communication degree with a specialization in media production and studies; a communication-theatre degree; a bachelor of music in jazz studies; and bachelor of science degrees in gerontology, nutrition sciences, public health and statistics, among others.
An email obtained by BG Falcon Media and sent to students in the communication program’s media production and studies specialization told them, "This decision will not impact your path to degree," and said courses, research and mentorship, internships and career or graduate school preparation will continue as planned. Those students were also offered the option of shifting to a new specialization in media production and studies without interruption or delay in earning their degree, BG Falcon Media reported.
Another ten programs are affected through Ohio Senate Bill 1, which took effect in June 2025, BG Falcon Media reported. The law required Ohio’s public universities to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs and to cut programs that graduate fewer than five students a year over a three-year period. Six programs will suspend new admissions in spring 2027: an associate degree in human service, bachelor’s degrees in geography, musical arts, musical composition and physics, and an individualized planned program degree.
BGSU is also asking the Ohio Department of Higher Education for approval to consolidate four programs — American culture studies, ethnic studies, popular culture, and women’s, gender and sexuality studies — and create an alternative option, BG Falcon Media reported. In September 2025, the university also cut its world language education programs because of low enrollment, under the same state requirements.
The announcement lands while BGSU is otherwise growing. The university has reported total fall enrollment of 20,799 students, its largest in nearly two decades, with undergraduate enrollment up more than 4 percent. It is also investing in other areas: this week the university won a $1.95 million federal grant to grow civic education for Ohio teachers, and its athletics department is promoting $3 tickets and fan upgrades as basketball tips off Monday. Friday’s program list is the other side of that picture — a large university pruning small majors while it expands elsewhere.
"As a growing public university in Ohio, Bowling Green has long been committed to ensuring our academic program offerings are meaningful and relevant, while providing an education of value for our students and the public," the university said in the release quoted by BG Falcon Media.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What is confirmed: the list of 30 affected programs, the spring 2027 effective date, and the protection for current and fall 2026 students, all from the university’s own announcement. What has not been detailed publicly: how many faculty and staff positions the reconfigurations affect, what the replacement "alternative options" will look like major by major, and whether the four-program consolidation will be approved in the form BGSU proposed.
For northwest Ohio, the stakes are practical. BGSU is one of the region’s largest employers and its teaching, health and public-service graduates staff schools, clinics and agencies across Wood County and beyond. Programs like public health, gerontology and nutrition sciences feed exactly those workforces, so the shape of their replacements matters well beyond campus.
What happens next: admissions for the suspended programs close with the spring 2027 semester, the consolidation request goes before the Ohio Department of Higher Education, and current students finish their degrees on the plans they started. Students weighing a BGSU application for spring 2027 should check the university’s program list before applying to any of the 30 named degrees.
Photo: Mbrickn, CC BY-SA