Journalism majors and minors opened their inboxes Nov. 20, 2025 to find an email from English professor and department head April Vinding. The email announced that, beginning with the 2026-2027 course catalog, Bethel University would be discontinuing the journalism major and minor. The photojournalism minor would continue in revised form.
“We’re grieving this change together since, although the journalism program and your work in it has been award-winning, enrollment in the major is not high enough to continue a robust and sustainable program,” Vinding wrote.
The email also stated that the future of the Clarion student newspaper “will be unfolding.” The paper operates separately from the department as a student club administered and funded through Student Life.
“What happens with the paper in ’26-’27 and beyond will likely be determined by conversations between the student editors and Student Life,” Vinding wrote.
Four years ago, the Bethel English and Journalism Department staff was downsized from eight faculty members to four. Two years ago, the Arts and Humanities scholarships were cut. Next, the Textura program, an international journalism study abroad project, was cancelled for 2026. Journalism students combined with the Psychology of Fandom trip instead.
Former journalism professor Scott Winter left Bethel in spring 2025 to teach at the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Finally, with only seven incoming students enrolling in journalism in 2024 and 2025, the journalism major and minor were cut.
“I knew before I left Bethel that there were rumblings that the department or the administration might be interested in doing this,” Winter said. “But it never really hit me until I got some warning from some friends that it was about to happen.”
Bethel journalism and international relations alum Soraya Keiser graduated in 2024. Keiser was recruited to Bethel’s journalism program in 2020 and qualified for the Arts and Humanities scholarship, which financially supported her Textura study abroad trips to Guatemala and India. Keiser said her time reporting abroad and as editor-in-chief of The Clarion equipped her for the world outside Bethel. After finishing a year teaching in Bulgaria through a Fulbright Fellowship, Keiser took a position as a Public Relations Associate at Mueller Communications in Milwaukee, Wis.
“The skills I learned within that [journalism] program have helped me get a job post-grad,” Keiser said. “It helped me receive my Fulbright Fellowship last year, like it really set me up for success.”
Now, due to a lack of enrollment, Bethel’s English and Journalism Department will no longer offer many of the journalism opportunities on Keiser’s resume.
“Bethel has become more and more of a business-conscious, budget-conscious institution,” Winter said. “Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I think it’s hard to say if Bethel is still a liberal arts institution when it’s not resourcing the humanities like it could.”
The English and Journalism Department is not the only humanities department with decreased enrollment. Biblical studies, history, philosophy, political science and languages and cultures have all seen less student enrollment, according to the Bethel Databook.
The Bethel Business Department, on the other hand, has grown in the past year, reporting an enrollment of 459 in 2024 and 570 in 2025. Bethel announced a new school of business July 7, 2025.
“I think it’s also part of a larger phenomenon that we’re seeing people being a bit scared to put their time and effort into the humanities,” Keiser said.
Bethel University provost Robin Rylaarsdam said, nationwide, more students are studying STEM and applied fields rather than the humanities. However, she maintained that Bethel students continue to receive a well-rounded education.
“All of our undergraduate students have a really robust and beautifully interdisciplinary experience with the liberal arts, arts and sciences,” Rylaarsdam said. “Through that general education program, whether you choose CWILT or whether you choose the Humanities track, you can’t help but encounter the full breadth of God’s fantastic creation.”
