Campus closures, mergers, cuts for late 2025

It’s December now, and the mid-Atlantic American seaboard is getting cold and dark. That mood might be too on the nose for today’s topic, which is current cuts to colleges and universities, but it might simply be appropriate.

If you’re new to this series, I’ve been tracking how campuses have been closing, merging, cutting programs, and laying off staff.  I do this as part of a futurist horizon scanning practice, looking into current events and recent history for documentary evidence of potential futures.  You can find previous posts on my blog, from 2024: March 1, March 20, March 28, April, May, June, July, September, November; from 2025: February, June, July, August, October.

We’ll start this one with a closure, followed by a merger, then spent most of our time on cuts, followed by crises and hints of cuts to come.   As usual I add a quick description and Wikipedia link for each institution. I’m also increasingly adding archived copies of stories when paywalls occur.

1 Closures

Sterling College (private, Vermont) will close after the spring 2026 semester. The reasons given won’t surprise my readers: declining enrollment and growing financial imbalances.

Inhabitants of Craftsbury, the town where Sterling is located, are already very concerned about the closure’s impact.

As a former resident of the state, I want to draw readers’ attention to this point:

Sterling is the latest in a series of small private schools throughout Vermont to close over the last decade. They include Burlington College, Green Mountain College, Southern Vermont College, College of St. Joseph, Marlboro College and Goddard College.

2 Mergers

New Jersey City University (public) and Kean University (public, research-2) agreed to merge, becoming Kean Jersey City.  As with most academic mergers this is asymmetrical, as Kean assumes the financial liabilities of NJCU.  NJCU had declared a financial emergency and was losing enrollment.

The state government kicked in $10 million to help the merger occur.

3 Campuses cutting programs and jobs

Rider University (private, New Jersey) announced it would  lay off between 25 and 40 professors, cut others’ pay by 14%, terminate some senior administrators, stop tuition remission, and pause retirement contributions. NJ.com cites the local student paper as counting the instructional cuts as 25% of the whole professoriate.  Rider has been suffering financial problems severe enough to be sanctioned by its accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

Calvin University (private, Michigan) will lose 12.5% of its faculty over the next two years, through a mix of voluntary and involuntary exits. In addition  the campus will end “the French major and minor, the German minor, the journalism minor, the public health major and minor, the sociology major, [and] the therapeutic recreation major.”  Further, “other departments are revising offerings and workloads, or relocating, like the science education studies program moving into the School of Education.”

The reasons are prospective, not based on a current crisis.  According to the student paper, President Greg Elzinga stated that: “Calvin is not in financial crisis. Calvin is in good financial standing. In order to remain in good financial standing, we need to make some choices now that will ensure that we’re sustainable for the long haul.”  While enrollment has risen, “[i]n February 2025, leadership warned that without corrective action, Calvin was headed for a $10 million deficit, citing demographic headwinds and a shifting mood in higher education.”

Michigan State University (public land grant) laid off 99 faculty and staff, after laying off 83 others this year.  According to Higher Ed Dive, “[t]aken together, the job cuts represent 1.3% of Michigan State’s workforce.”  The reasons given include inflation and Trump’s research cuts.

Xavier University (private, Jesuit, historically black) laid off 46 full time workers, “about 6% of the university’s workforce.”  It’s not clear which staff and/or faculty members are being cut, or which units the cuts impact. (archived copy of NOLA story)

Clarke University (Catholic, Iowa) is ending some academic programs and cutting some faculty and staff.  It will, according to local media:

phase out 13 under-enrolled academic programs at the end of the 2025-2026 academic year and eliminate approximately 35-37 positions as part of efforts to address financial pressures.

The private Catholic university announced the changes will affect approximately 23 faculty positions and 12-14 staff positions through attrition, consolidation or program closures.

According to an Inside Higher Ed report, “The majority of program cuts are at the undergraduate level and include subjects such as English, philosophy, and religious studies, all of which university officials have said are underenrolled.” The institution described cost inflation and reduced total enrollment as reasons for these moves, along with an effort to deal with long-term debt.

The College of Idaho (private liberal arts) is cutting several majors and ten professors  and staff. The campus will also add new degree programs:

Starting next fall, the Caldwell-based liberal arts college will no longer offer theater, communication arts and philosophy as majors. These will be replaced with three new undergraduate majors — biochemistry, finance and criminology — and three master’s degrees — data analytics, exercise science and accountancy.

The primary driver for these closures, cuts, and additions was to shift resources from low to high student demand programs.  Elsewhere in that state, the University of Idaho (public land-grant) will cut nearly 30 faculty and staff positions in response to state government cuts.  The Idaho system of seven campuses will implement cuts in various ways.

Eastern Illinois University (public) is cutting 17 staff positions, not rehiring 23 non-tenure-track faculty, and not renewing contracts for four faculty support staff.  Reasons given included federal research cuts, a drop in international enrollment, and “[t]he discontinuation of federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”

The University of Northern Colorado (public) will lay off 50 staff members and end 30 unfilled staff positions. Causes include lower enrollments and reduced state support.

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette (public research) terminated three vice presidents.   Interim president Kolluru “did not rule out the possibility of additional budget reductions or personnel cuts.” The campus faces a $25 million deficit.

Carnegie Mellon University (private research, Pennsylvania) cut 75 positions from its Software Engineering Institute (SEI), “approximately 10 percent of SEI’s workforce.” The reason was federal research cuts, unrelated to the October government shutdown.

Keene State College (public liberal arts, New Hampshire) convinced twelve tenure-track professors to accept voluntary separations, after ending 25 staff positions.  The state issued large budget cuts to its universities this year.

The University of Southern California (private research) laid off 55 faculty and staff, “bringing the confirmed total to at least 692 employees laid off since July.”   The campus president cited structural budget problems in addition to the Trump administration’s cuts to research.

Nebraska Wesleyan University (private, Methodist) laid off 14 staff members and reduced three more from full to part time.  The campus is facing financial stresses, driven in part by post-COVID enrollment decline.

Harvard University (private, research) announced it would massively cut new PhD spots, due to Trump’s research grant cuts.  Similarly, The New School (private research university, New York) is pausing new PhD enrollment for the next year, due to financial problems.

Western Michigan University’s public radio station reported on the impact of this summer’s faculty and staff layoffs at Kalamazoo College (private liberal arts, Michigan).

4 Impending or likely cuts

The provost of Yale University (private research, Connecticut) announced more budget cuts, this time in the wake of the increased federal government’s endowment tax. Provost Strobel warned that “[i]n some units, even after these reductions, layoffs may be necessary.”

Earlham College (private liberal arts, Indiana) announced plans for massive budget and staff cuts:

Following its board of trustees’ mandate to balance its budget by 2030, Earlham will cut $18 million from its annual operating expenses over the next four years, a 32% decrease from its current budget…

One way they plan to meet that goal is a “significant reduction in personnel,” cutting staffing costs by about 35%.

One Earlham philosophy professor on his Substack reports calls “to reduce faculty expenses (both teaching and administrative) by between 35% and 45% and staff expenses by 10%.”

Siena University (private, Franciscan; a college until this July) saw a series of faculty and administrators voluntarily leave, after student numbers declined. A campus representative insisted those were not layoffs.  (archived copy of local story).

Roger Williams University (private, Rhode Island) ordered nearly all faculty and staff to take a one week unpaid furlough as that campus faces financial pressures. Yet “[l]ayoffs are not being considered at this time, according to a university statement.”

The Higher Learning Commission accreditor put Wittenberg University (private liberal arts, Ohio) on probation. The reason:

the institution does not meet [accreditation] core component 4.B, which states “the institution’s financial management balances short-term needs with long-term commitments and ensures its ongoing sustainability.”

That assessment is based on Wittenberg’s deficit, uncertain enrollment, and credit issues, among other problems.

Simmons University (private, Massachusetts) deliberately reduced its student numbers, while ratings agency Moody’s downgraded its credit rating to junk status because of those numbers plus high institutional debt.  Bloomberg notes that Simmons’ enrollment has already been dropping:

Boston University (private research) offered voluntary early retirement packages to some faculty, under pressure from a budget deficit last year, declining international enrollment, and federal research cuts.  They’ve already been doing some small cuts: “Since January, BU cut $50 million from its $2.5 billion annual budget, laid off 120 staff members, paused cost-of-living increases, and eliminated 120 open jobs. Around 20 employees also saw their hours reduced or altered.”(Also note this datapoint about academic labor: “Federal data shows that BU employed 701 tenured professors — out of 3,345 total faculty — in fall 2023, the most recent year available.”)

In Canada, fallout continues from that nation’s decision to massively cut international student numbers. For example, Conestoga College (public, Ontario) just offered voluntary  exit packages for all staff.  “All full-time, active support staff at Conestoga were given the option to either accept the package or not; however, what happens if they don’t take it is unclear.”

What might we make of these accumulated stories?

I can identify some general through lines. On the causal side, the Trump administration’s cuts continue to echo through colleges and universities.  Rising costs, notably for health care, pressure institutional budgets.   Enrollment declines keep hitting some campuses.  Institutional debt and borrowing is a problem for some as well.  Demographics are a broad concern. A few schools don’t see themselves in trouble now, but act to get ahead of problems down the road.

On the institutional action side, we’re seeing a mix of cost-cutting measures, from offering voluntary departures to laying off faculty and staff, imposing compensation cuts in various ways, and ending allegedly underperforming programs.  All of these measures occur short of mergers and overall closures.

The humanities continue to bear the brunt of cuts.  Note that some institutions are turning resources to opening new programs which are not in the humanities.

I repeat a theme from 2025: whereas elite universities formerly escaped these stresses and cuts, the Trump administration’s campaign against the academy strikes the sector’s 1%.

Overall, I would expect all of these trends to continue. I’m not seeing significant countervailing actions – no major defenses of public higher ed from Democratic-led state governments, no cultural shift in favor of academia. Campus operational cost inflation appears locked in, given the broader economy.

And so to the darkest night of the year.  I hope everyone in the academic space is safe and sound in this awful situation.  Please do share your thoughts in the comment box below. If you feel you can’t write publicly, please reach out to me directly.

(thanks to Marty B, Concerned community member, Karl Hakkarainen, Phil Katz, Ken Latta, Chris Newfield, Peter Shea, Ed W8EMV, and Ed Webb for links and feedback.  I doff my hat to the journalists at Higher Ed Dive and Inside Higher Ed as they have done important reporting.)