When the Postsecondary Teaching and Learning Department closes in two years, it may cut out a crucial first-year experience for students.

Though department leaders have said the closure will have minimal effects on student experiences, the Minnesota Daily reported on Thursday that some faculty members and students doubt this claim.

PsTL is a department in the College of Education and Human Development whose focus is to serve underrepresented groups such as first-generation students. It’s likely that the department contributes to CEHD’s excellent 95.6 percent retention rate.

But when PsTL is dissolved, it will be surprising if that rate remains so high.

Mariana Morgan-Sawyer, a third-year student in the department, told the Daily that PsTL has provided her a closer community than she’s found elsewhere at the University.

PsTL associate professor Tabitha Grier-Reed told the Daily that students have asked her questions about the department’s closure. She hasn’t had answers for them.

Since the first announcement that PsTL would disband, CEHD leaders have provided next to no details regarding just how the closure will play out.

While it’s impossible to map out every facet of a department’s closure that involves more than 40 faculty and staff members, the University needs to do a better job of addressing the concerns of PsTL students and faculty members.

If PsTL’s closure really won’t affect student experiences, that’s great news. But the University must show those currently in the department how it will stay true to its word.