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Starting 2024 with all kinds of academic cuts
In this new year of 2024, which colleges and universities are cutting academic programs and jobs?
For a month I’ve been working on this post, accumulating information about different examples, but the instances have been coming in faster than I’ve been able to note them down. And my own schedule ramped up to a fever pitch again. Finally I’m drawing a line under stories so far, just to get this out there. So this is not an exhaustive list.
I’ll break this down into several categories, then offer some reflections about what the examples tranche might mean for higher education’s future.
1 Closing colleges and universities
We should start by discussing the maximum cut: closing institutions. Ohio’s Eastern Gateway Community College, for example, is suspending registration for summer and fall classes. Jamestown Business College, a New York for profit, is closing. The University of Wisconsin at Green Bay will end in-person instruction at its Marinette campus. Texas A&M suddenly announced it would close its Qatar Education City branch campus.
In the pipeline of potential closures: a Mississippi legislator posted a bill to shut down three of that state’s public universities.
