Dive Brief:
- The State University of New York at Fredonia is moving forward with a plan to cut 13 majors, the university announced this week.
- The elimination of programs, which include art history, sociology and Spanish, will be implemented by June 5, officials said.
- As of December, Fredonia faced a $10 million deficit. SUNY institutions at Potsdam, Buffalo State and Downstate Medical Center are also staring down financial challenges.
Dive Insight:
Fredonia officials said they plan to continue offering the affected subject matter through minors and courses needed for general education. Departments will have the option to develop new programs depending on student demand and market needs.
Fredonia said the cuts will affect 70 students’ majors and 22 students’ second majors. If students enrolled in the programs prior to June 5, they can still finish their degrees. But the institution will not recruit further students into the programs after that date.
“We want to acknowledge the trepidation during this process, and the disappointment people may have regarding these decisions,” David Starrett, executive vice president and provost at SUNY Fredonia, wrote in a letter to campus Monday.
“These decisions have not been made lightly, but have been made for the common goal we all share: ensuring that the university is responsive to student demand, directing our energies towards building degrees that students are seeking, the long-term financial health of SUNY Fredonia and the success of our students,” Starrett wrote.
The college cannot currently project the number of faculty and staff positions to be eliminated, he said.
Frederick Kowal, president of the United University Professions, the union that represents SUNY faculty, has called the deficit a “manufactured crisis.”
“This is about shrinking smaller campuses that don’t make money,” Kowal said when cuts were first proposed. “It flies in the face of SUNY’s own mission, to provide the highest quality educational experience with the broadest possible access through a geographically distributed system of diverse campuses.”
Fredonia is not the only SUNY college making cuts.
SUNY Potsdam will see layoffs this year, though details are still sparse.
“We cannot comment on individual personnel matters, but can confirm that a small number of positions will likely not be renewed this spring,” a spokesperson for the college said via email Thursday.
Last year, the college announced it would be cutting 14 academic programs, affecting about 4% of enrolled students. The college said at the time it was operating on a $9 million deficit.
The Potsdam spokesperson confirmed this week that the college is not currently weighing further program cuts.
SUNY Buffalo State, meanwhile, announced a hiring freeze in November to combat a $16.5 million deficit.
New York officials have also said they plan to downsize SUNY Downstate Medical Center, a teaching hospital in Brooklyn.
