Campus cuts, mergers, and closures from spring 2025

Greetings from early June. I’m home now and Virginia’s starting to turn up the summer heat. Bicycling is now more of a workout. I water the plants early, before the sun cooks the water right off. Our cats demand time outdoors, but soon retreat inside for blessed air conditioning.

Today’s topic is campus cuts, closures, and mergers. Last year I did a series of these grim posts (March 1, March 20, March 28, April, May, June, July, September, November 2024), but I’ve fallen out of the habit over the past few months. My last post along these lines was in February, it seems. The next few months were devoured by finishing my latest book, wrapping up a great seminar, making videos about Trump versus higher ed, participating in on the ground politics, and a lot more. I am trying to catch up now. Consider this post a sketch of some of American post-secondary education’s attempts to reduce themselves or survive.

Below are accounts of campuses taking negative or risky strategic steps. I’ve organized them under the headers of closures, mergers, cuts to programs and people, and budget crises which might cause cuts in the near future, followed by a few reflections. This is also more telegraphic than my previous posts, as I don’t want to repeat myself and because this is a lot of material.

One note: the Trump administration’s actions are starting to be felt along these lines. I have been describing and analyzing this in a YouTube series.