Two North Carolina public universities may see academic degree cuts soon after board vote

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Two of North Carolina’s public universities will be allowed to eliminate more than a dozen degree programs ranging from ancient Mediterranean studies to physics after the university system’s governing board voted Wednesday to authorize the cuts.

The University of North Carolina Board of Governors’ vote comes after requests from chancellors at UNC Asheville and UNC Greensboro to slash multiple academic degree programs from their university despite pushback from faculty who wanted to find alternate paths forward for programs.

An affirmative vote means the chancellors can now move ahead with the program cuts, which may also mean removing tenured faculty, UNC System senior vice president of academic affairs David English said. The chancellors’ decisions would eliminate certain degrees, but individual courses from those programs can still be offered to students pursuing other majors.

The cuts go into effect for the upcoming academic year.

Financial issues drove the choice to cut programs at UNC Asheville, which had 2,925 students enrolled in fall of 2023. The university predicted a $6 million deficit by June 30, which was partially caused by an enrollment decline of more than 900 students in five years, according to a UNC Asheville academic portfolio review document.

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Similar problems face UNC Greensboro, an institution with more than 17,700 enrolled students last fall. The university has tried for years to stay away from making cuts to the “academic core,” but Chancellor Franklin Gilliam said during an earlier committee meeting on Wednesday that UNC Greensboro needs change after losing 2,500 students in four years.

The board vote affects the ancient Mediterranean studies, drama, philosophy and religious studies bachelor’s degrees at UNC Asheville. The decision could also mean the removal of concentrations in French and German for students pursuing language degrees.

More than 60 students are estimated to be affected by the program discontinuations at UNC Asheville, Chancellor Kimberly van Noort said.

“We simply cannot always provide every opportunity to every student at every institution,” van Noort said during the committee meeting.

Cuts at UNC-Greensboro affected 14 degrees at various educational levels including:

1. Bachelor’s degree in anthropology

2. Bachelor’s degrees in physics

3. Master’s degree in nursing

4. Master’s degree in math

5. Master’s degree in languages, literatures and cultures

6. Doctorate degree in communication sciences and disorders

Individualized study programs have been created for many students already enrolled in the eliminated degrees. For some programs, decisions on what happens to faculty haven’t been made.

Many board members praised for the chancellors’ choices, some calling it “courageous.” One board member, Cameron Brown, was more skeptical about the cuts, saying the decision seemed “removed from having student opinion.”

“I think that if I was a student enrolled there, I would feel like I was shorted in my experience,” said Brown, who is a master’s student at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Faculty at UNC Asheville gave their input to the board by submitting a letter in response to the proposed program eliminations. The letter outlined a three-step plan that addresses faculty retirement, combines departments and reassesses curriculum, and establishes a more collaborative method to conduct academic program reviews in the future.

“Making curricular and personnel decisions under duress creates a context of fear and uncertainty among all campus actors: students, faculty, and staff alike,” read the letter, which was signed by 24 department chairs and directors.

The anticipated cuts at both universities might be only the beginning of the “tough work” needed to manage budgets at every public university in North Carolina, board member Sonja Phillips Nichols said. There are 17 schools within the UNC system.

“We have to do this on every single campus,” Nichols said. “I hope everybody else is getting ready for this very hard and very necessary road that we need to travel.”