Spurred by financial pressures, the state’s three public colleges are embarking on a major overhaul that includes eliminating 11 degree programs with low enrollments, consolidating more than two dozen small programs and placing another 45 programs under scrutiny for possible elimination or consolidation.

The Office of Higher Education, which oversees the University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College and the Community College of Rhode Island, required the institutions to review all programs graduating fewer than 11 students a year for the past three years and submit a list recommending elimination or consolidation.

The institution with the highest number of small programs is URI, the state flagship research institution, followed by RIC.

The Board of Governors for Higher Education will vote on the matter at 5 p.m. Monday at the Ryan Center on URI’s Kingston campus.

If the plans are approved, students will no longer be able to major in Latin American studies at URI or receive a bachelor’s degree in clinical laboratory sciences at RIC.

URI’s classical studies major would be reduced to a minor. A host of engineering and environmental and life sciences degree programs — bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral — would be consolidated, allowing students to still concentrate in a specialty, such as geological oceanography or cell and molecular biology, but receive a more general degree in their field.

Several other departments, including physics and women’s studies at URI, Spanish and dance at RIC, and general science, drama and therapeutic massage at CCRI must have plans to attract and retain more students by Jan. 15, 2010, or they, too, could be eliminated or consolidated. “Everyone knows we are in a very deep fiscal crisis that requires us to take a hard look at anything that is not producing the way we need it to,” said Jack R. Warner, the state’s commissioner of higher education, who requested the review. “If a program has low enrollment, that’s either because student demand has changed over time or the program has never really caught on. We have to make room for new programs that will expand and respond to the changing needs of the new economy.”

New programs include several certificate programs for “green economy” jobs at CCRI and a doctorate in nursing practice at URI that will be offered this fall, Warner said.

Students majoring in the affected programs will be allowed to complete their degrees, but no new students will be admitted into the programs slated for elimination.

The academic reorganization is not expected to generate immediate savings or result in layoffs of professors, but retiring faculty will not be replaced in areas that are fading away, say higher education officials.

In addition, several faculty who now serve as department heads will be removed from their administrative posts and will return to teaching full time — another way for the institutions to save money and serve students, say officials.

“We wanted to do three things simultaneously,” said URI Provost Donald H. DeHayes. “We wanted to increase efficiency, make sure we were enhancing the quality of our offerings and position our university for the future.”

Combining civil, ocean and chemical engineering doctoral programs makes sense and will yield a higher number of graduates, says Raymond M. Wright, dean of the College of Engineering which has 1,100 undergraduate and 150 graduate students. Some specialized programs graduate several doctoral students one year, but just one student — or none — the next year, an inconsistency that occurs nationally, Wright said.

Some URI faculty oppose closing small programs, said Frank Annunziato, executive director of URI’s chapter of the Association of American University Professors.

“I think the most prevalent view of the faculty is that there are a lot of bean counters at the OHE that are creating artificial kinds of standards that have nothing to do with academic quality,” Annunziato said. “A few years ago, you needed to graduate six or fewer students to land on the list. Now it’s 11. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Some programs targeted for possible elimination or consolidation have few students majoring in them — comparative literature, women’s studies and Italian — but they serve hundreds of students in introductory classes and therefore those programs need to remain rigorous, he said. Others, like classics, provide key classes to history, philosophy and archeology students.

Annunziato questioned why such significant changes are being made days before URI’s new president, David M. Dooley takes over July 1.

“Why not give Dr. Dooley time to give his opinion on things?” Annunziato asked.

Higher education officials point to the state’s yawning deficit as a reason for urgent action. Over the past two years, the state colleges have lost about $30 million in state financing, forcing the institutions to hike tuition and fees more than 10 percent, leave open scores of positions and in the case of URI, lay off some staff.

In addition, consolidating degrees makes sense, particularly in fields where lines between certain areas have blurred, such as the life sciences and mechanical, chemical and ocean engineering, says URI’s provost.

“Everything in higher education has become increasingly interdisciplinary, yet at URI, many programs have been just the opposite, dividing into multiple areas of focus,” DeHayes said. “Consolidating will force more faculty to work together and will free up more faculty to teach. We will also achieve a critical mass of students in our programs.”

Yet something valuable is sacrificed when students cannot major in ancient Greek or receive a specialized degree in music performance at their state university, says Annunziato.

“Who else besides us offers Latin and Greek at the public institutions?” Annunziato asked. “We are supposed to be a comprehensive public institution taking care of the sons and daughters of farmers and mechanics — that’s our mission. If you eliminate all these programs, what are you saying? That you have to go to Brown or Yale for these things?”

jjordan@projo.com