u/Fun_Awareness_7623

“For me, humanities made sense because with AI, learning the human side of business became much more valuable than just understanding the numbers...”

https://preview.redd.it/nect2crknyqh1.png?width=2736&format=png&auto=webp&s=7aea519a924130f8b4e4c328a6b0947dface7ecb

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisachambers/2026/09/21/move-over-stem-humanities-degrees-are-poised-for-a-comeback-thanks-to-ai/

[edited to include image]

From The Article "The total number of students represents a decrease from 43,567 in Fall 2025, due primarily to a loss of more than 1,300 international students, reflecting a national trend over the past few years."

UNT started losing international students in a big way in 2023 and perhaps a little earlier. This was before the current national trends with Donald Trump, and to be fair, before President Keller was here either. One of the Colleges on campus [that shall remain nameless] got a reputation as being racist, and the international students from a certain country stopped coming in such big numbers. Fast forward to Trump election and post-2024 policies, things are even worse.

But... President Keller and company have known about this for a couple of years now, and we are still missing enrollment targets. Why aren't we making up for it with domestic students? We are in a metroplex of 8 million and a state of 30 million, and we are still falling short. Why is this?

President Keller's bold vision needs to change, and he needs to take off the myopia glasses and realize that more international students isn't the answer, more AI also isn't the answer, and more online classes damn sure isn't the answer.

Many institutions in Texas did not miss their enrollment goals with international or domestic students, and some set records [for example, competitors like UH, TXSTU, TECH, did great, as did TWU].

We need a course correct, and quick, or President Keller will decide to cut even more academic programs. Or he might get really bold and decide to merge the existing Schools into new Super-Schools! First one in the nation!

[edited to add some hyperlinks]

According to Arizona State University, whose student-faculty ratio is 18:1, “The student-to-faculty ratio [at ASU] of 18 to 1 ensures individualized support for learners.“ And 18 students per 1 faculty member turns out to be a pretty good average for respectable public universities, so ASU is hitting it just about right.

But UNT is coming in at a whopping 26:1! And judging by how quickly we are losing faculty due to the general chaos of President Keller's policies, we'll get a lot worse before it's all over. HINT: potential students and ranking organizations like US News pay attention to these things.

Here are some other institutions for comparison. You can draw your own conclusions about where institutions choose to spend their money,

Obvious Elite:

Yale 5:1

Rice 6:1

Harvard 7:1

Semi-Elite:

SMU 11:1

Randy Bass and Georgetown University 11:1

TCU 13:1

Solid Average Range:

University of Michigan 15:1

University of Florida 16:1

UT Austin 18:1

Arizona State University 18:1

University of Oklahoma 18:1

UCLA 20:1

Texas Tech 20:1

Texas A&M 21:1

Texas State University San Marcos 21:1

University of Houston 22:1

Stratosphere Range:

UT Arlington 25:1

University of North Texas 26:1??

I meet with students, faculty, staff, and administrators regularly. So many people are angry, tired, and frustrated. I have never seen UNT campus so bleak.

President Keller, you are starting your third year here. When will things get better? What are you going to do to make things better?

Two years into his tenure at UNT and the place is in shambles. Morale is at rock bottom for staff and faculty. Staff and faculty are leaving. Students are frustrated because their classes are being put online (so Keller can charge them more digital use fees. Yes, they know the reason and they detest the cynicism), students can't get advising appointments, they can't get business done on campus because staff is overworked and underpaid. President Keller meanwhile seems oblivious to the carnage he is causing. He needs to go, and one of you Board of Regents folks needs to be the little boy who stands up and says the emperor is naked as hell.

President Keller has never had a tenure track job. He has never been a legitimate executive. He has zero relevant experience to be a university president. And guess what? It shows!

It is time to cut the losses for us all, and let him go. This needs to stop before much more damage is done.

This is a topic that comes up frequently in this sub, especially as UNT continues to reel from budget cuts and bad executive decisions. This recent study shows that no, athletics programs are not bringing in money.

Some argue that strong athletics programs contribute to atmosphere and student life. But, as we are now in an era of needing quantifiable return on investment data on everything, we should demand the same of athletics.

https://www.chronicle.com/liveblog/heres-the-latest-news-on-campus-finance

Why is a bureaucrat who has never had an academic job president of UNT? Why is an associate professor of biology at Georgetown (Heidi Elmendorf) a senior advisor to President Keller? Why is an educrat from Georgetown who pontificates on “institutional transformation” (Randy Bass) a senior advisor to President Keller? Why would career academics at Georgetown University come to UNT in the first place? It doesn’t make sense. Or does it?

Here is how the puzzle goes together:

Harrison Keller became UNT’s president as a political appointee: he is a long-term education bureaucrat for the state in Austin. He probably thought he was coming on up to UNT to clean up a little DEI, cancel a few art shows here and there, and basically take it easy while coasting on to some bigger political position down the road. Then the budget crashed, and it wasn’t so fun anymore. What to do? Well, obviously, call your old cronies from your Georgetown days to come to the rescue. The only thing is...they come with a price.

Heidi Elmendorf is an associate professor of biology from Georgetown. She was tenured in 2005 but was unable to be promoted to full professor in the 20 years since that time. This is called “deadwood” down here in Texas, don’t know what they call it at Georgetown. She doesn’t do biology anymore and now works on education initiatives and institutional transformation with hubby Randy at the “Red House” at Georgetown University. The Red House is a group of people at Georgetown that theorize about education and teaching and transformation. They pilot lots of these ideas in classes here and there at Georgetown, but now they are doing it on a large scale here at UNT.

Randy Bass is an English Professor at Georgetown and thinks about strategic initiatives and institutional transformation and lots of other buzz words. Unlike Heidi, he was able to be promoted to full professor. Anyway, now he gives lots of talks on educational technology and transformation and is a big player in the Red House. Like Harrison Keller, he just really wants to be Michael Crow.

So, when Harrison’s gig at UNT started crashing with the budget deficit he called Heidi and Randy. They came in to help and are now basically getting paid big bucks to pilot their Red House ideas on us at UNT. This is the reason for the major changes we are all seeing crashing into UNT right now. Randy and Heidi have basically made guinea pigs out of all 46,864 of us. Not a bad deal for Randy and Heidi at all. I can’t wait to read the paper they publish on us!

President Harrison Keller (along with his highly paid advisors Randy Bass and wife Heidi Elmendorf of Georgetown University) is getting rid of all academic departments at the UNT and merging them up into “Schools” of 3-4 former departments. [These advisors are old friends with the president, and the ostentatious nepotism is appalling, but that is another story]

In any case, the president is getting rid of all academic departments, and is also splitting some departments up into two or three pieces in the process. For example, The English Department was cut up with pieces going into three different Schools: the Creative Writing element went to the School with dance and theatre, the Literature element went to the School with world languages, while the First Year Writing Program went to a School of communication and media. Geography was split up in similar ways, as was Communication, etc. The College of Liberal Arts was Keller/Bass/Elmendorf’s first target, but they are now doing the same to all the other colleges: Business, Engineering, Science, etc.

The faculty are in chaos, and nobody seems to know what is going on, whether department chair or dean, as there has been no formal instruction, just notice that your department no longer exists, and rumors flying everywhere. As would be expected, morale is rock bottom and the faculty that can leave are doing so.

President Keller originally tried to claim that all the merging was in response to budget deficits, but it became clear very quickly that there wouldn’t be much savings, and not nearly enough to justify that level of disruption, so he has dropped that claim. Nevertheless, Keller/Elmendorf/Bass are pressing on.

Are other universities out there experiencing this level of chaos brought on by their own President and his highly paid advisors? This is not simply cutting programs here and there (plenty of that has been done too). This is getting rid of every single academic department at the university in a rushed, abrupt, chaotic manner, with the feeling that there is nobody out there driving the bus.