Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle On-The-Road
    • Professional Development
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle On-The-Road
    • Professional Development
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    College Advising
    Serving Higher Ed
    Chronicle Festival 2025
Sign In
News

Program Cuts Loom at 4 Public Universities

October 24, 2010
At the U. of Missouri at Columbia, 75 “underperforming” degree programs are threatened.
At the U. of Missouri at Columbia, 75 “underperforming” degree programs are threatened.U. of Missouri at Columbia

Financially strapped public colleges and universities are living in the shadow of the ax this semester, enduring a renewed stream of announcements of potential or actual faculty layoffs and program closures.

The situation is not likely to improve anytime soon. Federal stimulus money, which propped up many budgets over the past two years, is drying up. And states are in no position to help. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, estimated this month that state governments will face a total budget shortfall of $160-billion in the 2011 fiscal year—only a modest improvement from the estimated $191-billion gap for 2010.

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

Financially strapped public colleges and universities are living in the shadow of the ax this semester, enduring a renewed stream of announcements of potential or actual faculty layoffs and program closures.

The situation is not likely to improve anytime soon. Federal stimulus money, which propped up many budgets over the past two years, is drying up. And states are in no position to help. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, estimated this month that state governments will face a total budget shortfall of $160-billion in the 2011 fiscal year—only a modest improvement from the estimated $191-billion gap for 2010.

Colleges are reacting in various ways, from far-reaching reviews of “underperforming” programs to specific cuts. Here are four dispatches from the front lines of the budget wars:

Missouri

Following word that the state faces a budget gap of up to $500-million in the 2012 fiscal year, Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, ordered the Department of Higher Education to conduct a statewide review of all academic programs at public institutions.

As a result, on October 1, the provost of the University of Missouri at Columbia, Brian L. Foster, released a list of 75 “underperforming” degree programs being considered for potential realignment or elimination. The threatened programs had awarded an average of fewer than 10 undergraduate, five master’s, or three doctoral degrees in the past three years. Most programs on the list are graduate programs, such as one offering a master’s in pathology.

Department heads have until October 31 to submit additional data—ranging from faculty and research productivity to the number of courses taught by each instructor—about those programs.

Mr. Foster said that the university won’t know the outcome until next year but that a number of programs will very likely be consolidated or eliminated.

Leona Rubin, chair of Missouri’s Faculty Council on University Policy and an associate professor of veterinary medicine, said she had been assured by administrators that the review is not about wide-ranging faculty cuts.

But Michael Urban, president of the Graduate Faculty Senate and an associate professor of geography, is still worried because cuts seem to be an obvious cost-saving measure.

Louisiana

State appropriations for Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge have shrunk by $47-million since January 2009, when a midyear budget cut that university officials expect to be handed down any day now is considered. And lawmakers have made it clear that more budget cuts are on the way in the 2011-12 fiscal year.

ADVERTISEMENT

What’s not clear are the specifics: How much of a financial hit will Louisiana State—which lost several programs this past spring—have to take this time around? How many more programs will be shuttered? How many more faculty and staff jobs will disappear?

“People are walking around saying, ‘Mine is the essential program on campus that can’t be cut,’ but they’re secretly fearing that their program will be the one,” said Kevin Cope, president of the Faculty Senate and a professor of English literature. “It’s a pretty unstable situation. And it’s having a severely demoralizing effect on the campus.”

If the most severe scenario outlined last month by the university comes to pass—a plan that shows the effects of a $62-million cut—officials say Louisiana State would have to shutter about seven of its 14 colleges, meaning enrollment would drop by an estimated 8,000 students. In turn, officials estimate that about 350 faculty members would be laid off as about 50 degree programs were shut down; about the same number of staff members would lose their jobs as well.

The other institutions in the Louisiana State University system also face budget cuts.

New York

On October 1, George M. Philip, president of the State University of New York at Albany, had some bad news. Admissions to five programs—classics, French, Italian, Russian, and theater—would be suspended, effectively killing them. Jobs would disappear universitywide, too. By 2012, some 360 positions across the university will have been eliminated, mostly through resignations and retirements, Mr. Philip said. However, he added, “involuntary terminations of employment will be unavoidable.” About a quarter of the total number of the positions lost from 2008 to 2012 will be a mix of full-time, tenure-track, and adjunct faculty jobs, according to university projections. Three-quarters will be professional and support staff.

ADVERTISEMENT

Since 2008 the university has had to cope with “more than $33.5-million in cuts to its base state tax-dollar allocation, a more than 30-percent decline,” Mr. Philip said in a statement. The shortfall required the university “to rethink, balance, and reallocate resources to support its core academic and research mission,” he said. In a follow-up statement, Mr. Philip said Albany had decided to make the announcement now to allow for more input and to give students and faculty members “as much time as possible to consider their future in the event such plans are enacted.” That suggests the university may be open to modifying its plans.

Jean-François Brière, a professor of French studies, chairs the department of languages, literatures, and cultures, home to several of the condemned programs. The announcement led to an outcry on the campus, he told The Chronicle via e-mail, adding that the move was viewed as an attack on both liberal-arts education and tenure.

According to Mr. Brière, seven tenured positions in French, two in Russian, one in Italian, and one in Latin are threatened, along with the jobs of several full-time lecturers. He and other faculty members issued an open letter decrying the situation, and a Web petition protesting the proposal has attracted more than 12,000 signatures.

Mr. Philip has asked the University Senate to comment on the proposal. Eric Lifshin, a professor in the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, chairs the senate. “This is obviously a challenging time for everybody involved,” he told The Chronicle. “I’m expecting there will be a spirited discussion. I certainly have gotten a lot of e-mails from people.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Karl Luntta, a spokesman for the university, said the president would take the senate’s comments “under advisement.” Asked whether the decision might be reversed, he said that “the consultation process about the future of the language programs is continuing.”

Illinois

The flight path of the Institute of Aviation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is cloudy after a systemwide review of campus budgets found that closing the small program could save as much as $750,000 annually.

In a report issued last month, a team of university professors, students, and administrators suggested closing the institute on the basis of “questions about its ‘fit’ and strength of its ties to our core missions.” No plans have been announced for wider program cuts at the university, although administrators and professors anticipate a period of systemwide cutbacks.

The aviation program, founded in 1946, offers two-year professional pilot certification as well as bachelor’s and master’s degrees in a field called aviation human factors. The institute holds classes at the campus’s Willard Airport, which is several miles from the campus. Its 172 students have been taught by a small staff of adjunct instructors after the five permanent faculty members were relocated to other departments this year. “The students are just very concerned about the stability of the program,” said Tom W. Emanuel Jr., the institute’s acting director.

ADVERTISEMENT

He feels that the Institute of Aviation is being unfairly singled out by the university. “We’re just easy to look at because we’re so small and remote,” he said. Mr. Emanuel plans to fight the program’s closure when it is deliberated and voted on by the university senate.

Robin Kaler, a university spokesperson, said no final decision had been made. Although financial viability will be a factor in the senate’s decision, she said, program cuts will also take student and faculty interest into account.

We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Vector illustration of large open scissors  with several workers in seats dangling by white lines
Iced Out
The Death of Shared Governance
Illustration showing money being funnelled into the top of a microscope.
'A New Era'
Higher-Ed Associations Pitch an Alternative to Trump’s Cap on Research Funding
Illustration showing classical columns of various heights, each turning into a stack of coins
Endowment funds
The Nation’s Wealthiest Small Colleges Just Won a Big Tax Exemption
WASHINGTON, DISTICT OF COLUMBIA, UNITED STATES - 2025/04/14: A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator holding a sign with Release Mahmud Khalil written on it, stands in front of the ICE building while joining in a protest. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators rally in front of the ICE building, demanding freedom for Mahmoud Khalil and all those targeted for speaking out against genocide in Palestine. Protesters demand an end to U.S. complicity and solidarity with the resistance in Gaza. (Photo by Probal Rashid/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Campus Activism
An Anonymous Group’s List of Purported Critics of Israel Helped Steer a U.S. Crackdown on Student Activists

From The Review

Photo-based illustration of a closeup of a pencil meshed with a circuit bosrd
The Review | Essay
How Are Students Really Using AI?
By Derek O'Connell
John T. Scopes as he stood before the judges stand and was sentenced, July 2025.
The Review | Essay
100 Years Ago, the Scopes Monkey Trial Discovered Academic Freedom
By John K. Wilson
Vector illustration of a suited man with a pair of scissors for a tie and an American flag button on his lapel.
The Review | Opinion
A Damaging Endowment Tax Crosses the Finish Line
By Phillip Levine

Upcoming Events

07-31-Turbulent-Workday_assets v2_Plain.png
Keeping Your Institution Moving Forward in Turbulent Times
Ascendium_Housing_Plain.png
What It Really Takes to Serve Students’ Basic Needs: Housing
Lead With Insight
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin