[ti:US Colleges Cut Programs Because of Budget Deficits, Fewer Students]
[al:Education Report]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2024-09-25]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]Christina Westman hoped to become a music therapist when she came to St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.
[00:09.62]But that became impossible when the college announced a plan to cut its music department along with 42 other study programs.
[00:20.50]The move is part of a wave of program cuts among small and large colleges in the United States.
[00:27.57]The aim of the cuts is to deal with budget deficits.
[00:31.63]Causes for the deficits include less government money, rising operational costs and fewer students.
[00:40.65]The cuts mean more than reduced budget deficits or job losses.
[00:45.80]"For me, it's really been anxiety-ridden," said Westman.
[00:51.23]"It's just the fear of the unknown."
[00:54.30]At St. Cloud State, most students will be able to finish their degrees before the cuts. 
[01:01.29]But Westman is transferring to Augsburg University in Minneapolis.
[01:05.89]For years, many colleges avoided making cuts, said Larry Lee.
[01:12.88]He was acting president of St. Cloud State but left last month to lead Blackburn College in Illinois.
[01:22.91]The number of students enrolling in college dropped during the pandemic. 
[01:29.99]But officials hoped the number would return to levels that existed before the COVID pandemic. 
[01:38.45]They had used federal aid money to ease budget deficits.
[01:44.63]"They were holding on, holding on," Lee said.
[01:50.28]The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center said students have begun to return to two-year community colleges. 
[02:01.89]But the numbers for four-year colleges remain lower than expected. 
[02:08.66]Even without growing concerns about the high cost of college and student debt, the population of young adults in the U.S. is shrinking.
[02:20.63]Birth rates fell during the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009 and never recovered. 
[02:31.15]Now smaller classes of high school students are preparing to finish and head off to college.
[02:40.13]"It's very difficult math to overcome," said Patrick Lane, a vice president at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.
[02:53.09]In addition, the new federal government's financial aid application has created more confusion.
[03:02.90]Millions of students are wondering where to go to college and how to pay for it.
[03:10.55]Katharine Meyer is an expert with the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution.
[03:22.02]She said, "I think a lot of colleges are really concerned they're not going to make their enrollment targets."
[03:32.02]Many colleges like St. Cloud State had already faced budget problems. 
[03:38.97]The university's enrollment rose to around 18,300 students in the autumn of 2020 before steadily falling to about 10,000 students in 2023.
[03:56.68]Its student population has stopped shrinking.
[04:00.96]But the budget deficit totaled $32 million over the past two years, forcing the sweeping cuts, Lee said.
[04:13.16]Some colleges have taken the more extreme step of closing.
[04:18.46]That happened at the 1,000-student Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama, the 900-student Fontbonne University in Missouri, the 350-student Wells College in New York, and the 220-student Goddard College in Vermont.
[04:36.84]Cuts, however, are more common.
[04:40.29]Two of North Carolina's public universities in Asheville and Greensboro plan to cut 14 programs including ancient Mediterranean studies and physics.
[04:52.71]Arkansas State University announced it was ending nine programs. 
[04:58.87]Three of the 64 colleges in the State University of New York system have also cut programs because of low enrollment and budget problems.
[05:09.29]Other schools cutting study programs include West Virginia University, Drake University in Iowa, the University of Nebraska campus in Kearney, North Dakota State University and nearby Dickinson State University.
[05:25.35]Experts say it is just the beginning.
[05:29.27]Schools that are not making cuts now are examining their class offerings. 
[05:34.75]At Pennsylvania State University, officials are looking for similar or under-enrolled programs to cut.
[05:43.19]The most affected programs are usually smaller ones and those in the humanities, which now have fewer students than 15 years ago.
[05:55.90]"It's a humanitarian disaster for all of the faculty and staff involved, not to mention the students who want to pursue this stuff," said Bryan Alexander, a Georgetown University senior scholar who has written on higher education. 
[06:18.75]"It's an open question to what extent colleges and universities can cut their way to sustainability."
[06:29.12]Terry Vermillion recently retired after 34 years as a music professor at St. Cloud State.
[06:40.00]He said the cuts are hard to watch after the pandemic.
[06:47.05]"We were just unable to really effectively teach music online, so there's a gap," he said. 
[06:56.72]"And, you know, we're just starting to come out of that gap and we're just starting to rebound a little bit. And then the cuts are coming."
[07:07.67]Lilly Rhodes is a music major at St. Cloud State. 
[07:13.33]Rhodes said, "There's no musicians coming in, so when our seniors graduate, they go on, and our ensembles just keep getting smaller and smaller."
[07:27.75]"It's a little difficult to keep going if it's like this," she added.
[07:34.46]I'm Mario Ritter Jr.
[07:36.78]And I'm Jill Robbins.