University of Tennessee officials have postponed a decision on whether to eliminate the Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology and two other programs at the Knoxville campus, officials said Tuesday.

The UT board of trustees was scheduled to vote Friday on cutting three academic programs at UT — the audiology and speech pathology department, the industrial and organizational psychology graduate program in the College of Business Administration and the university’s dance program — as part of a $21 million systemwide cut.

The board will vote on the system’s budget at its Friday meeting but will decide in October whether to cut the three programs, officials said.

Administrators have come under fire from parents and UT faculty members who say the audiology and speech pathology department is a robust and well-regarded program that should not be eliminated.

“It is very upsetting and impacting a lot of people,” said Susan Donaldson, a Signal Mountain resident whose daughter is enrolled in a master’s program in the department. “It is a nationally ranked program, a feather in the university’s cap. It makes no sense to cut that program.”

UT President John Petersen said he decided to postpone the board’s vote on whether to keep the three programs in response to a request by the UT interim Chancellor Jan Simek and faculty senate leaders.

“The state budget process requires quick reaction, which has shortened the discussion time possible,” Dr. Petersen said in a statement. “To assure that all concerned have adequate time to study the issue and that we have dealt directly and effectively with all concerns that have been raised during this difficult process, I have agreed to ... a lengthened period to consider programmatic cuts.”

The proposal is to phase out the departments over several years, allowing students now enrolled to graduate. But Ms. Donaldson said her daughter and other students worry that faculty in audiology and speech pathology will leave before then, knowing they will be moved or fired once students graduate.

“This is very unfair,” she said. “I finally got my student in a state school, and the first thing they do is cut her program.”

The audiology and speech pathology department employs 25 faculty members and has 100 undergraduate and 100 graduate students enrolled, said Ilsa Schwarz, department head of audiology and speech pathology at UT.

The University of Tennessee has one of only two undergraduate audiology and speech pathology programs in the state and was helping to fill an acute shortage of Tennessee speech professionals, Ms. Schwarz said.

After graduation, students from the department may work in hospitals, clinics and schools with stroke victims and individuals with Down syndrome or autism, among others, Ms. Schwarz said.

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