After almost 20 years of being the “only public liberal arts college in Texas,” MSU has pulled out of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC).

The conversation about this change came while MSU was balancing its $9.8 million budget deficit.

“So, when we were going through our budget challenge, and we were looking at every dollar we spent, and thinking, ‘How is that strategically moving the university forward, and what is the ROI(Return on Investment) for that?’” President Stacia Haynie said. “COPLAC was costing, between the dues to the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges and Universities, […] the cost was between $15,000 and $18,000.”

COPLAC offered a variety of opportunities for students, including conferences, summits and awards. However, Haynie claimed that not many students were making use of these opportunities.

“The primary benefit that the university received was our students were able to interact with some of their programming and our faculty in their leadership conference they had. And we would have between, I want to say three to six people a year that would leverage that,” Haynie said.

Instead, MSU has developed its own leadership program to provide similar opportunities for students. The Student Leader Development (Lead the Stampede) program was developed in order to offer students and faculty the leadership development opportunities they were making use of under COPLAC.

As for the other benefits offered by COPLAC like academic conferences and summits, the plan is to meet students where they are at. Haynie said that support will come in the form of helping students in their individual disciplines rather than having an overarching conference like COPLAC does.

“Students who may want to present research papers with their faculty in their discipline, that we’ll support those endeavors, again, working with colleges and working with the programs to identify what best supports the student in the discipline,” Haynie said.

Though MSU is no longer a “public liberal arts college,” the liberal arts will still be a key part of the university’s identity.

“I think that is the role of college, is that you’re providing [a well-rounded education]. I think that’s not done necessarily through being a membership of a particular association, but ensuring that you have strong academic programs across that spectrum,” Haynie said. “The liberal arts, I think, are integral to who we are as a university. That won’t change and hasn’t changed.”