UNC Asheville will drop these 4 majors as the university faces a $6 million shortfall
UNC Asheville will discontinue four academic departments and curtail another as the liberal arts university faces a significant budget shortfall for the fiscal year and a years-long pattern of declining enrollment.
Chancellor Kimberly van Noort announced the proposed cuts Thursday. Her proposal comes after the university conducted a review of its academic offerings, called an “academic portfolio review,” beginning last month.
Four academic departments and the degrees they offer will be “phased out” as a result of the review, van Noort announced, meaning that current students with majors housed in the departments will be able to continue their studies and graduate, but future admissions will not be accepted. Those departments are:
- Ancient Mediterranean studies
- Drama
- Philosophy
- Religious studies
The languages and literatures department will be curtailed by eliminating its existing concentrations in French and German. The concentration in Spanish will remain.
With five of the university’s 27 undergraduate academic programs affected, van Noort’s proposal is more limited than a recommendation from First Tryon Advisors, an outside consultant the university hired for the review, which suggested the university review 14 programs. Van Noort told the Asheville Watchdog, a local news outlet, that she would consider additional data, aside from First Tryon’s recommendations, in making her final proposal.
In the spring semester, 72 students were majoring in degrees offered in the affected departments, accounting for 3.5% of current students who have declared majors, van Noort said in her announcement. Between 2020 to 2023, the departments graduated, on average, a total of 25 students per year, accounting for about 3% of the university’s total graduates over that period.
Van Noort’s proposal will be submitted to the UNC System Board of Governors and President Peter Hans for approval at the board’s July meetings.
A plan will then be created giving students, faculty and staff a timeline by which the programs will be discontinued. Tenured and tenure-track faculty set to lose their jobs as a result of the cuts will be given six- to 12-months’ notice, while other affected faculty will receive notice or severance in accordance with UNC System policy.
“Reducing program offerings is a painful step, and this is difficult for all of us,” van Noort said in a campus message Thursday. “The University remains steadfast in its commitment to the entire community and will fully support all students in the impacted programs and all impacted faculty members as we move forward.”
Budget shortfall, enrollment declines
The portfolio review and its resulting cuts are one piece of a larger effort van Noort and UNC Asheville are making to address a $6 million budget shortfall for the current fiscal year, a deficit that is driven largely by declining enrollment at the small, liberal arts university over the past several years.
According to UNC System data, the university’s total enrollment has dipped by about 24% over the past six years. Last fall, the university enrolled about 2,900 students, down from more than 3,800 in 2017.
The Board of Governors, which sets policy for the state’s public university system, in 2022 revised the system’s funding model for campuses — tying funds to schools’ performance instead of their ability to grow enrollment. But campuses still receive state funds based on students’ credit hours.
Van Noort on Thursday said a “sustainable” enrollment for the university would be between 3,800 and 4,000 students by 2030.
In addition to the portfolio review, the university in April laid off 12 employees, with the chancellor’s office among the three university departments affected, and limited employee travel, among other efforts. The university also expects 12 faculty to participate in the UNC System’s Faculty Realignment Incentive Program, van Noort said Thursday. That program allows retirement-eligible faculty to retire with severance packages, freeing up funds for other uses.
UNC Asheville is not alone in facing such enrollment declines and deficits, in North Carolina or nationwide.
UNC Greensboro, which has also experienced enrollment declines and budget deficits, conducted a similar academic portfolio review this academic year that resulted in 20 programs being cut from the university’s offerings. UNCG Chancellor Frank Gilliam summarized enrollment’s impact on campus funding by stating in a March campus message: “Enrollment equals budget.”
Winston-Salem State University is facing a roughly $3 million budget shortfall and eliminated 55 employment positions last month, Triad Business Journal reported.
All universities in the UNC System will be required to review their academic offerings at least every seven years, if not more often, under a revised policy on academic planning approved by the Board of Governors last month.
