UNC Greensboro Dropping 20 Academic Programs Due to Decreased Enrollment
“I think it’s really important that we recognize this is a really painful and tragic process going on that we are actually mourning”
The school is actually cutting five majors. Sounds pretty severe.
The College Fix reports:
Enrollment plunge forces UNC Greensboro to slash 20 academic programs
Twenty academic programs are slated for elimination at the University of North Carolina Greensboro amid an enrollment plunge, campus leaders recently announced.
Five majors are being completely eliminated, according to a recent announcement from Chancellor Franklin Gilliam: anthropology, geography, physics, physical education and religious studies. Three language minors — Chinese, Russian, and Korean — are also on the chopping block.
The university is also ending 12 graduate programs and is pausing admissions in its masters drama program.
“My decision is rooted in the University’s strategic direction; patterns in enrollment and demand; a need to prioritize faculty time and expertise; and where we see the greatest opportunities to grow, lead, and bolster our excellence,” Gilliam stated.
The cuts are needed, argued Ashlynn Warta with the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal.
“UNCG’s cuts, though disliked by those directly impacted, are a prudent move,” she wrote. “Perhaps there is room for culling of administrative or other roles, as well.”
“As Chancellor Gilliam urged from the beginning, universities should not be blind to the changing landscape of higher education and the influence those changes may have on enrollment and budgets. At the end of the day, it is impossible and fiscally irresponsible for every university to attempt to supply every possible academic offering at all times.”
But others have argued the cuts missed the mark, that they don’t actually save money.
“Our administration has claimed that this is all necessary for financial planning for the future and for a more efficient university, though they’ve never demonstrated this successfully,” Mark Elliott, president of UNC-Greensboro’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, told the Chronicle of Higher Education. “They’ve shown us no projections that these cuts are going to save money.”
Stephen Tate, interim head of the department of mathematics and statistics, told the Chronicle “a lot of the cuts they’re making simply have no budgetary impact.”
Some students and faculty held a small protest on Thursday to “mourn” the cuts, NBC 12 reported.
“I think it’s really important that we recognize this is a really painful and tragic process going on that we are actually mourning,” Emilee Robbins, a graduate student, told the news station.
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Comments
I live near Greensboro, and there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth. But this was the right move by the administration.
Many of these majors had 20 or fewer students, making them financial losers from the get-go.
Faculty are livid, of course. In my own time in administration, I was surprised at how many faculty didn’t understood you couldn’t run at a loss constantly and survive. The tenured seem unconcerned or ignorant of the consequences of their opinions and theories.
We’re going to see more of this in the regional state universities. They all carry many unsustainable programs that often amount to some professor’s or department’s hobby horses. Margins are thin at schools like UNCG so things that can’t go on won’t.
But they’re not so quick to ditch their admin people are they?
DEI costs money. It’s funny to me that academics are so out of touch that basic economics means nothing to them.
Not only does it cost money but it brings in no revenue. Eventually, schools are going to figure this out, we hope.