Few students are aware of any difference between “departments” and “programs” at Wellesley. However, the seemingly minute labeling distinction shapes faculty’s responsibilities and the external reputation of the program.

In 2023, the College conducted an internal self-review process, where the Peace & Justice Studies program wrote a self study and invited a set number of faculty in the same field from peer institutions to make their observations and offer recommendations. The review found that the Wellesley Peace & Justice Studies program was constrained by its “program” designation, according to Professor of Peace and Justice Studies Catia Cecilia Confortini 

The review’s alleged primary finding was that Peace & Justice Studies’ status as a program contributed to understaffed faculty and overwhelmed administrators. Despite having a similar number of students and core courses to other departments on campus, the designation as a program administratively limits its access to resources on campus, raising concerns about the quality of academic instruction that Peace & Justice can provide to its students.

In 2024, Confortini submitted a letter applying for departmental status to the Committee on Curriculum and Academic Policy (CCAP), headed by Dean of Academic Affairs Michael Jefferies. The application was denied, with the College citing its “strategic vision” to consolidate programs and departments.

In an April 2026 statement to the News, the Provost’s Office said that during such decision processes, it “tries to reach a decision that will benefit all Wellesley students and the College as a whole.”

As of the 2025-2026 academic year, majors such as Biological Sciences, English, Music and Mathematics & Statistics are labeled departments, while Middle Eastern Studies, Theatre Studies and Peace & Justice Studies, among others, are labeled programs. 

Generally, older and more established disciplines are organized as departments, considered as having “their own set of methodologies and canonical texts,” Confortini said.

Programs, however, are more interdisciplinary, bringing together faculty from different departments, as explained by Professor Catherine Wearing, professor of Philosophy and the Director of the Cognitive and Linguistics Sciences program.  

“Traditionally, programs were often extra academic programs … [which are] much more inventive,” Professor of American Studies Paul Fisher added.

Still, there are exceptions. Women’s and Gender Studies, for instance, has interdepartmental faculty but is labeled a department.

Programs, especially with large student populations, often face resource limitations. Where a department administrator typically works full-time, a program’s administrator works only part-time.

“We don’t get the resources that departments get … we have to fight for all our resources,” said Confortini. “We only have four hours of administrative support a week.”

The problem of having fewer faculty stretches advising capacity. Confortini and her colleague split advising “between 40 and 45 majors,”  forcing them to advise approximately 20 students each. 

“They [professors in programs] are always caught between two obligations,” said Wearing, referring to this balance. 

Ananya Balakrishnan ’26, a Peace & Justice Studies and International Relations-Political Science double major, noted that the limited resources in Peace & Justice constrain the program’s potential.

“If the Peace & Justice program had more funding, … the scope … would be so much broader,” Balakrishnan said.

These perceived limitations affect community-building within the major. Balakrishnan pointed to fewer formal opportunities to connect with the Peace & Justice studies major through research and teaching assistant jobs.

“Having avenues through which students can create an institutionalized community becomes really important because you’re able to get more people into the major, create stronger networks and provide underclassmen student-oriented resources,” she explained. “In the Political Science department, it’s a lot easier to have an institutionalized community and more formalized networks and more formalized structures for student-to-student, peer-to-peer mentorship,” Balakrishnan said.

Another challenge with the program designation is external credibility.

“The general sense is that programs are not as serious, not as rigorous, not as important as departments,” said Confortini. “It kind of feels like we’re like the ugly duckling.”

Fisher added that department status gives interdisciplinary fields more “dignity and prominence, both for faculty and for students.”

Inaya Raja ’27 described feeling insecure about how a program-based major is perceived, relying on their International Relations-Political Science major to “showcase legitimacy.”

“[It] has made me feel a little bit more insecure about what my future is going to look like post graduation in terms of people taking a program like Peace & Justice seriously,” said Raja. 

Balakrishnan also echoed the stability in belonging to a department, describing Political Science as feeling like a “safer bet.”

In 2019, American Studies, Neuroscience and Environmental Studies successfully became departments. Confortini later informed the News that she believes their application for departmental status was never actually discussed in CCAP. 

Professor Marc Tetel, former chair of Neuroscience, cited external reliability as a key factor, especially in grant applications and student graduate study applications.

“I think when graduate schools are looking at our majors … our students get a richer neuroscience education because they’re coming from a department, instead of a biology faculty member and a psychology faculty member providing courses on the periphery,” said Tetel.

To apply for departmental status, Tetel explained that all three programs submitted a joint memo in 2018 to the Dean of Academic Affairs, citing they had at least four tenure-track faculty members and independent budgetary operations, among other traits. When all three programs became departments, Fisher credited the smooth transition to the growing institutional support for interdisciplinary study.

“It’s not like we had to talk them into it,” said Fisher. “They understood what we were saying.”

Contact the editor in charge of this article: Noufeesa Yahyaoui & Lyanne Wang

UPDATE: A previous version of this article misstated the frequency of the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) accreditation reviews and incorrectly conflated Wellesley’s self-review process with the official accreditation process. It also contained inaccuracies regarding access to internships within the Peace & Justice Studies program. The article has been updated for accuracy.