Culinary and baking and pastry programs to be discontinued

The Culinary Arts and Hospitality students and faculty members from 2018. Voice File Photo

By Cydney Heed
Staff Writer

The culinary and baking and pastry programs at Washtenaw Community College will be discontinued within the next 12 to 18 months, a decision which was made earlier this summer.

Current students may choose to complete the program within the allotted time frame, change their major, or transfer to a different school.

“What they’re trying to do is take students that are already enrolled in the program and go ahead and help them have what is called a ‘teach-out’,” said Andrew Lehman, a culinary instructor for front of house.

Dwindling enrollment, low graduation rates, and the high cost of running the program were all cited as reasons for the decision. Garrett’s Restaurant and The Sweet Spot will also be closing.

“This was a program where the enrollment had been suffering for a while… we would have had to make new investments, so it really was not sensible for the college to do,” said Kimberly Hurns, vice president of instruction.

Enrollment in the program has gone down by 23.9% in the last five years. While the pandemic may have played a role in the decision, Hurns indicated that it was not the sole reason for the program’s cancellation.

“I think that the pandemic accelerated it, but I don’t think that the pandemic created it. I know that because there’s so much…uncertainty going on in the country in general, that it’s important to know that evaluating programs is something that the college is always doing,” said Hurns.

Faculty are also faced with the prospect of having to find a new job once the program ends.

“Support is mainly from the staff that we have and from the dean. Nobody has really just kind of dropped the ball on this and left us,” said Lehman.

Students, alumni, and community members hoped to address their concerns at a July 28 board meeting.  Some students were left unsatisfied by the outcome.

“They barely addressed any of us who were attending or wrote in,” said Isaac Cuevas, a current culinary program student.

Samantha Evens, another student, expressed a similar sentiment.

“Unfortunately, during that board meeting, they didn’t answer all of our questions. They didn’t actually allow anybody to comment… it was just what they decided to read aloud,” said Evens.

Evens works full-time while enrolled in the culinary program and felt pressured to take additional classes because of the announcement.

“I was only going to be taking like two classes per semester so that my workload wouldn’t be that bad. Now I’m taking like three or four classes this semester in order to kind of make sure I can get as much as I can while I’m here,” said Evens.

Hurns recognized and addressed some of their concerns.

“I think that we’re just now really getting to the point where some students are saying, ‘Hey, this is what I need, this is what I’m going to do’ and when school starts August 31 we’ll have a much better idea of kind of what we need to do for our next step in scheduling and how long this is really going to take to help our students get done,” said Hurns.

Current culinary students started a petition on Change.org titled “Save the culinary/pastry/hospitality program!” It has received 1,203 signatures as of Aug 26.

Students and alumni have also voiced their opinions and concerns on a Facebook page “Save the Culinary Program at WCC.”

A quote from the petition reads: “Not only is WCC taking away our dreams but they are also taking the opportunity and dreams of the youth. If my school decided to cancel the culinary program, wouldn’t other schools eventually do the same?”

Both Hurns and Lehman have indicated that their first priority is students who are already in the program.

“We would never leave students out in the cold,” said Hurns. “The college is here to help them in any way.”

Lehman added that his goal is to “create a path for the students, that they don’t feel that they are lost in what direction they are going.”

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