September College Cuts Include Jobs, Programs and Athletics

Jobs, academic programs and athletic teams were all on the chopping block at many universities last month as they struggled to plug budget holes amid declining enrollment.

Others cast the reductions as necessary to avoid fiscal issues in the future.

Here’s the latest on cuts announced last month.

Wittenberg University

Facing a multimillion-dollar deficit, the small, private liberal arts institution in Ohio trimmed 24 faculty and 45 staff positions last month in an effort to reduce personnel costs, The Springfield News-Sun reported.

Given that some of those positions were already vacant, officials said about 40 individuals were affected. Three of the 24 faculty members slated to lose their jobs opted to retire, the newspaper reported.

Wittenberg is also dropping majors in East Asian studies, German, music, music education and Spanish, as well as a Chinese language minor. The tennis and bowling teams will also be eliminated.

The cuts appear to be less severe than initially feared. Earlier this year, employees raised concerns that up to 60 percent of faculty members and one-third of staff could be axed.

Baldwin Wallace University

Baldwin Wallace, another small liberal arts institution in Ohio, is eliminating 28 faculty and staff positions as part of a restructuring plan that seeks to shave $7 million off the university’s budget, Cleveland.com reported.

The cuts include 18 faculty members, eight staffers and two executives.

The university is also cutting 10 academic programs: music history, jazz, visual/studio art, communication studies, film studies, public relations, public health, master of public health, the digital marketing–to–M.B.A. graduate program and leadership in higher education.

Including cuts announced earlier this year, the university has recently eliminated 64 jobs. Baldwin Wallace is contending with a $20 million budget gap that has driven rounds of cuts.

Bemidji State University

Facing an $11 million budget gap and enrollment struggles stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, the public institution in Minnesota is cutting 14 faculty jobs, Lakeland PBS reported.

Though enrollment ticked up by 3.5 percent this year, budget issues remain a challenge.

Bemidji State is also dropping two academic programs: philosophy and computer science. Officials say the changes will get Bemidji State within $400,000 of a balanced budget.

Bemidji State also cut 23 jobs last year.

Drexel University

Grappling with a budget gap driven partly by an enrollment shortfall, which adds up to a projected $22 million in lost revenue, the Philadelphia-based institution is cutting benefits, consolidating colleges, asking several deans to step down and considering staff layoffs, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Drexel missed enrollment targets by about 500 students this year; officials blamed the bungled launch of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which led to lower FAFSA completion rates. Drexel officials noted that challenge was particularly acute for first-generation college students.

In a message to the campus community, Drexel administrators noted the need to close the budget gap.

“Our financial challenges are considerable. New and recurring revenues have not kept pace with recurring expenses,” officials wrote. “The University is working to solve an approximately 10% structural imbalance in its operating budget. The key drivers of this imbalance largely reflect the challenges impacting higher education right now: namely, declining enrollments, increased investments both in financial aid to promote access and affordability and in student supports to ensure their success and wellbeing, and rising costs associated with doing business.”

Columbia College Chicago

More cuts are coming at Columbia College Chicago, where administrators plan to drop 18 underperforming academic programs amid budget challenges, the Chicago Sun Times reported.

The cuts follow sweeping layoffs over the summer amid a steep enrollment decline; Columbia College Chicago laid off 70 staff members and eliminated 32 vacant positions earlier this year as it tried to close a projected budget deficit that had ballooned to $38 million. The targeted programs include bachelor’s degrees in history and creative writing as well as some master’s degrees.

Western Washington University

Declining enrollment and budget challenges have led the public university in Bellingham to cut two jobs amid consolidation, Cascadia Daily News reported. More layoffs are on the way, according to President Sabah Randhawa.

In a state of the university address last month—which was interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters—Randhawa said the cuts were necessary to provide financial stability.

“The bottom line is that the university’s current scope of operations is not sustainable,” he said.

More details on the number of anticipated cuts are expected this fall.

University of Dayton

Citing thin operating margins and budget pressures, officials at the University of Dayton plan to close or merge multiple graduate programs that are underenrolled, The Dayton Daily News reported.

The move may affect as many as 20 master’s programs and three doctoral programs. An unspecified number of jobs will also be affected, with cuts expected to be announced next year.

While the private, Catholic university is not running a deficit, officials cast the move as prudent fiscal management.

“Ultimately, we hope that the various faculties will choose to bring these and other graduate programs forward for suspension so that we can make the appropriate budget improvements while also further investing in the quality of our core mission: transformational undergraduate education,” they wrote in a statement published by the newspaper.

Tennessee State University

Reeling from past financial missteps and decades of underfunding, the historically Black university in Nashville has announced a freeze on hiring and nonessential expenditures, The Tennessean reported.

Officials also hinted at likely job cuts to come, including at the administrative level.

“We are sitting with our [vice presidents] and looking at our structure to see if all of those extra layers of management are needed,” interim president Ronald A. Johnson said in a meeting.

Recent financial issues prompted state lawmakers to vacate the TSU board and appoint new members, even as the state has underfunded the college by $2.1 billion over the course of three decades, according to a 2023 analysis by the U.S. Department of Education.

Bob Jones University

Anticipating $5.5 million in lost revenue over the next two years, the Christian liberal arts institution in South Carolina cut its baseball program and eliminated an unspecified number of positions, FOX Carolina reported.

“While difficult, these corrective actions are necessary to ensure the University’s ability to deliver our mission into the next century. We remain committed to supporting our faculty, staff and students and to delivering the high-quality education for which Bob Jones University is known,” officials said in a statement.