Academic closures, mergers, cuts: October-November 2024

How are colleges and universities responding to financial pressures?

I’ve been blogging about some answers to this question for nearly all of 2024 (sample posts: March 1, March 20, March 28, April, May, June, July, September), partly as evidence for some points in the book I’m writing.  I also think it’s important to document these institutional strategies and tactics, including for noting the human impact. Today I’ll share exemplary stories from the past two months since my last post on the topic.

I’ll follow the format I’ve been using this year: campus closures, followed by mergers, staff cuts, and looming financial problems. At the end are some brief observations.

On a personal note, I honestly often dread doing this cuts etc. posts. They frustrate and depress me for obvious reasons.  But I feel it’s important to document this part of the reality of higher education, especially if it’s little discussed.  It’s evidence for the future.  Let me know what you think in comments.

1 Closing colleges and universities

Bard College at Simon’s Rock (private liberal arts college, Massachusetts) will close its campus, relocating to a new site next to the mothership Bard College in New York.  The reasons are two: first, “many years of declining enrollment revenue.”  Second,  “the competitive market of early college offerings around the country.”  The institution was a rare one, enrolling high school age students to involve them in post-secondary learning.

Is this a closure or just a move?  The official statement sounds final for the Mass. campus and its staff, but other accounts (for example) emphasize relocation.

2 Mergers

Dakota County Technical College (public technical college; Minnesota) and Inver Hills Community College (public community college; Minnesota) are considering merging. Why merge?  At least one local authority (“Scott Olson, chancellor of Minnesota State”) cites declining enrollment.  Another goal is to save dollars: “the merger would likely save about $500,000 per year.”

Those savings would, most likely, come from job reductions, given that the majority of most academic institutions’ spending goes to people.  Inside Higher Ed cites one faculty member’s concerns: “Laura Funke, an English instructor at Inver Hills, told the Star Tribune [that] faculty are tense about issues such as potential layoffs, closing of programs and seniority.”

They seem to be 9-10 miles apart.

Interestingly, the two schools are already sharing some resources: “The two institutions, only nine miles apart, already jointly employ 64 employees and have shared a president since 2015.”  There are also local and recent examples of mergers:

The California State University Maritime Academy (“Cal Maritime”) (public university; California) and California Polytechnic State University (“Cal Poly”) (ditto) will merge, according to a vote of the CSU system. The reason is that Cal Maritime has suffered a major enrollment decline, with regular financial impacts, including “an operating fund deficit in four out of the past five years, including $82,903 in the 2023-24 year and $883,610 the year before.”

More:

Between 2017 and 2022, fall headcount at Cal Maritime dropped 22.1% to 849 students, according to federal data. Meanwhile, enrollment at Cal Poly — by far the larger of the two — has hovered around 22,000 students over the same period.

The “increasingly urgent” financial and operational problems at Cal Maritime created a “dire, binary choice,” the officials noted in their report. That choice being: “integrate the two institutions or initiate immediate steps for the closure of the Maritime Academy.

If and when this succeeds, the total number of campuses in the CSU system drops by one, from 23 to 22.

3 Campuses cutting programs and jobs

Elizabethtown College (private; Pennsylvania) will cut several programs and with them 13 full-time faculty members.  The programs include “fine arts major, sociology major and minor as well as the Spanish and Spanish education majors.”   The reason?  Financial distress: “In its June 2023 tax filings, Elizabethtown College reported $93.1 million in revenue and $107 million in expenses. Its losses nearly tripled in the 2022-23 fiscal year over the 2021-22 fiscal year from $5,494,743 to $14,169,094.”   The student paper interviewed cut instructors.  (This is another queen sacrifice, my term for when an institution cuts faculty in a bid to survive; the phrase is from chess.)

Saint Augustine’s University (historically black Christian; North Carolina) is cutting one half of its faculty and staff, along with some unnamed programs.  The reason?  Financial crisis:

Saint Augustine’s posted a $6.4 million total operating deficit for the fiscal year that ended this July and racked up a nearly $9.1 million deficit the year before, according to its latest financials.

Among its many fiscal challenges, net tuition and fee revenue fell by roughly half to $7.9 million between 2022 and 2024. Revenue declines have forced the university to grapple with multimillion-dollar deficits even as operating expenses fell from $42.1 million in 2022 to $27.3 million in 2024.

The university will also lease some of its land.  SAU has been struggling for years.  (This is an immense queen sacrifice.)

Western Washington University (public university; Washington) will end 55 positions, some of which are not currently occupied, over the next year.  WWU will also reorganize its administrative structure. Why these cuts?  According to the official statement, it’s about finances, enrollment, and inflation:

WWU’s budget challenges are due to lingering pandemic revenue shortfalls, as smaller class sizes work through the system, in addition to insufficient state funding, cost-of-living increases, and higher costs of goods and services.

St. Louis University (Jesuit research university; Missouri) is ending 130 positions; as most are not currently filled, this means 23 staff laid off.  The reason is, according to SLU, short term financial stresses and the resulting need to cut the budget.  Faculty, staff, and students protested.

Portland State University (public research university, Oregon) laid off more than 90 non-tenured faculty members.  The reason: a major budget deficit.

Texas A&M University (public land grand research university; Texas) is shutting down more than 50 low-enrolling programs.  One is an LGBTQ studies minor, targeted by a state representative.  Apparently A&M faculty were not involved in this decision, and the university’s board imposed it.

Metropolitan College of New York (private college; New York) is looking to sell or lease some of its real estate.   The reason: falling behind on debt payments. To be clear, this is not a staff cut, but a real estate one.

4 Budget crises, programs cut, not laying off people yet

Brandeis University (private research university; Massachusetts) is struggling with financial problems:

The financial pressure led to a mass layoff in the summer, hiring freezes and spending cuts, a halt in plans for a new science facility, an usually large drawdown from the endowment to subsidize operations, and, for the first time in a decade, a budget deficit and a cash loss at the end of the past academic year.

Tennessee State University (historically black land grant university, Tennessee) is in a very bad financial position, according to its new president.

In recent years, the historically Black institution has faced growing expenses, increased tuition discounting, and the end of federal emergency funds tied to the pandemic, according to a Thursday presentation to Tennessee’s State Building Commission.

On top of those issues, Interim President Ronald Johnson told the commission that poor decision-making by past leadership and a lack of checks and balances “put the institution in a crippled position.”

Connecticut higher education faces a cut across the sector as the state’s governor mandated an $8 million reduction across the institutions.  The institutions include Charter Oak State College, a set of community colleges, four regional universities, and the University of Connecticut. The reason has to do with the state’s budget:

The announcement is a reversal of Lamont’s previous pledge to spare public colleges and universities from efficiency cuts. State officials said the cuts were necessary given projections that government spending will shatter approved limits by nearly $400 million this fiscal year.

Boston University (private research university, Massachusetts) has suspended admissions to graduate programs in: “American and New England Studies Anthropology Classical Studies English History History of Art and Architecture Linguistics Philosophy Political Science Religion Romance Studies Sociology.”  According to Inside Higher Ed it sounds like the BU graduate school possibly overadmitted graduate students last year.

Reflections

I note that the California State merger is another very asymmetrical one, with Cal Maritime on the brink of disaster while Cal Poly – much, much larger – is doing fine.  Again, academic mergers are often closer to acquisitions.

The Texas A&M cause might foretell more such cuts to public universities, motivated by politicians and implemented by governing boards:

In an interview with Inside Higher Ed, Harrison—a Texas A&M graduate—said he was outraged to learn about the LGBTQ studies program at his alma mater and was “proud” to have ended it, arguing that it never should have been approved in the first place. Now he plans to go after the individual courses that are still being offered, including what he called an “alternative genders” class.

“If they’re going to keep that course, I want an official response from Texas A&M leadership,” Harrison said. “I want them to tell me exactly how many genders they believe exist, and I guarantee you, I’m going to formally request that they give me that answer in writing.”

He added that he plans to take aim at other LGBTQ+ programs at public universities across the state.

“I want to end all taxpayer-funded leftist propaganda in every single one of our public institutions of higher learning,” he said. “And if it takes extreme budget cuts to get their attention, so be it.”

Program cuts tend to hit the humanities.

Queen sacrifices are still in evidence.

The human costs are significant: professionals suffering incomes lost, health care cut, careers derailed, projects broken up.  Students see their studies knocked sideways. Again I emphasize this point, all too often lost when people turn away from such stories, or focus on the financial aspects.

Will we see more of these closures, mergers, cuts, and financial crises?  Certainly, as American higher education remains locked in a series of structural challenges.  And now a new Trump administration is getting ready for office with all kinds of impacts, as I’ve been writing.

Finally, I’d like to invite anyone with information on a college or university’s plans to close, merge, or cut to share them with me, either as comments on this post, as notes on social media, or by contacting me privately here.  I write these posts based largely on public, open intelligence (news reports, investigations, roundups) but also through tips, since higher education sometimes has issues with transparency.  We need better information on these events.

(thanks to Karen Bellnier, Karl Hakkarainen, and George Station, among others)