A queen sacrifice proposed in Arkansas

An Arkansas university is considering a major queen sacrifice.

Henderson State University is a rare institution, a public (state-supported) liberal arts university. Their financial exigency committee produced a recommendation for serious academic program cuts, which entail faculty terminations.

(“Queen sacrifice”: removing tenure-track faculty members, based on a chess analogy)

Programs on the block include: accounting, business information systems, data science, finance, French, general studies, German, management, management information systems, marketing, music performance and composition, political science. By my count ending those programs also ends 33 faculty positions.

One local paper reports that “Henderson spokeswoman Tina Hall said the school’s academic programs are expected to shrink by ‘approximately 30–40%.’” Total savings from these cuts will net HSU $3.7 million.

Why might this occur?

The clue is in the committee’s name. “Financial exigency” is an academic term of art. It describes a dire financial situation. Once declared, more options are on the table, including radical ones. Why is Henderson in such straits? Wikipedia reports that a financial crisis struck the campus in the 2010s:

Glendell Jones Jr.’s……