Amid Budget Shortfall, New Jersey City U. Will Slash Half Its Undergraduate Programs

Facing a budget shortfall of $12.7 million, New Jersey City University will ax almost half of its undergraduate programs and cut its academic offerings over all by 37 percent.

The university will close 48 of its 101 undergraduate programs, 29 of its 67 master’s programs, and one of its three doctoral programs. It will also eliminate 24 minors and 10 certificate programs. The undergraduate programs affected include physics, environmental science, and early-childhood education.

As many as 30 tenured faculty members will lose their jobs at the end of the academic year, and up to 19 adjunct professors and staff members will not have their contracts renewed for the next academic year.

The cuts are expected to save the university at least $5 million annually starting in the next fiscal year, a news release said.

Enrollment at the Jersey City institution has been declining since 2016 and fell 14 percent during the pandemic. Meanwhile, its efforts to grow its way out of financial trouble backfired. The university ended the 2022 fiscal year with a $13.8-million budget deficit — more than 10 percent of its total budget — and entered the 2023 fiscal year with a projected deficit of $22.6-million.

“Today’s announcement is a difficult but necessary next step toward the long-term sustainability of the university mission,” Joseph Scott, chair of the Board of Trustees, said in a written statement. “Our current financial crisis has made clear that the breadth of our current academic portfolio is no longer tenable for the size of an institution we need to be.”

The move on Thursday is the latest, and most significant, cost-saving measure that NJCU has announced this year. In November the university announced it had slimmed down its administration through reorganization, and last week it announced that five athletic programs had been cut. Its managerial work force has been reduced by 41 percent since the pandemic began.