Goucher College Announces Cuts to Liberal Arts Programs

Goucher College Announces Cuts to Liberal Arts Programs

The higher ed bubble is coming soon to a school near you.

Inside Higher Ed reports:

Cuts to Liberal Arts at Goucher

Goucher College is the latest institution to announce a series of program cuts following an academic prioritization process. Majors and minors in math, music, physics, religion, Russian and elementary and special education are being phased out, as are majors in studio art and theater, the college said this week. Book studies, German and Judaic studies will also be eliminated as stand-alone majors.

All current and incoming Goucher students will be able to graduate with their intended major under the current program, but the changes take effect thereafter.

In an all-campus memo, President José Antonio Bowen said that Goucher will do “everything we can to keep disruption to a minimum, but it is imperative that resources are allocated in ways that best support as many students as possible.”

There “is no financial crisis; in fact, after a very thorough review this summer, the Standard and Poor’s retained its ‘A-’ bond rating for Goucher,” he added. “Raising costs and continuing to increase the number of options per student, however, is no longer a possibility. We are determined to offer the best education for a price more people can afford.”

This is not the first time that Goucher has undergone an academic program prioritization process, or a metrics-driven evaluation of degree tracks to make decisions about funding and resource allocation. But it is the first time such an evaluation at Goucher has resulted in the elimination of so many programs, and especially programs that are considered part of any liberal arts college’s mission.

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