Higher Education: US Colleges Cutting Majors, Slashing Programs after Years of Putting It Off 📚

[appalachiablue]

'US colleges are cutting majors and slashing programs after years of putting it off,' AP News, Aug. 11, 2024. Ed. 🎓
------
Christina Westman dreamed of working with Parkinson’s disease and stroke patients as a music therapist when she started studying at St. Cloud State University. But her schooling was upended in May when administrators at the Minnesota college announced a plan to eliminate its music department as it slashes 42 degree programs and 50 minors.

It’s part of a wave of program cuts in recent months, as U.S. colleges large and small try to make ends meet. Among their budget challenges: Federal COVID relief money is now gone, operational costs are rising and fewer high school graduates are going straight to college. The cuts mean more than just savings, or even job losses.

Often, they create turmoil for students who chose a campus because of certain degree programs and then wrote checks or signed up for student loans. “For me, it’s really been anxiety-ridden,” said Westman, 23, as she began the effort that ultimately led her to transfer to Augsburg University in Minneapolis. “It’s just the fear of the unknown.”

At St. Cloud State, most students will be able to finish their degrees before cuts kick in, but Westman’s music therapy major was a new one that hadn’t officially started. She has spent the past 3 months in a mad dash to find work in a new city and sublet her apt. in St. Cloud after she signed a lease. She was moving into her new apt. Friday.. Experts say it’s just the beginning. Even schools that aren’t immediately making cuts are reviewing their degree offerings. Particularly affected are students in smaller programs and those in the humanities...

https://apnews.com/article/college-degree-programs-cuts-music-f0c271f6d61a13404f93688fcc6c589b

[Jim__]

1. I wonder how this will shake out in the long term.

It's understandable that every college and university is not able to offer a degree in every discipline. But, I would hope that, say, in each individual state there is at least 1 school that will offer a major in any particular discipline. Say, 1 university in Rhode Island will offer a major in music.

[appalachiablue]

2. I agree, some of these studies have to retained, absolutely. Thanks for posting Jim.

[3catwoman3]

3. A few years ago, I was buying a book in one of the shops at Chicago O'Hare...

...and chatted briefly with the young an at the cash register. He was majoring in mythology. I remember wondering what career opportunities there are for mythology majors.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

6. I used to know a PhD-holder in Germanic folklore.

He was a late-20's Catholic seminarian, but he was going to switch sects so he could get married.

So the Catholic Church is hiring, but the pay sucks.

[Hekate]

8. I wondered too, but I took it for midlife joy. However my classmates were already in careers...

…where they looked to the enhancement in their outlook: film, art, writing, and a slew of practicing psychologists. They were an amazing lot.

My program was fairly unique, because it was Pacifica Graduate Institute which houses the Joseph Campbell Archives. Pacifica teaches for degrees in depth psychology, but when they decided what they could do with mythology 30 years ago, I was there for the first class.

I think it is what you make it, like the other humanities. The problem is that the Humanities are not much valued any more — and I am one of those people who believe they expand our minds and helps make us really human.

[slightlv]

4. When the "conservatives" are in charge,

arts and the humanities are the first to be cut, and here we are. These higher culture programs of society serve "no purpose" as far as repugs are concerned. Never mind the depth of understanding and beauty they contribute to the world it's people. I love the idea of majoring in mythology... I'd have dearly loved to see that when I was in college. Then on to teaching it in secondary and post secondary courses. Not to mention the adjacent religion based courses and degrees. Might have saved me a bunch of money spent getting my pysch degree during a time when everyone was doing business majors, and thus ending up doing tech workshops to teach myself computers when they first came out... and *that* being my career until retirement. Art, literature, humanities, courses which teach the ancient past (other than out-and-out History classes), courses that teach the how and why to help people, none of these types of degrees are worth anything in a red, autocratic society positioned only on making money for people who already have so much of it they can't spend it in their lifetime.

[appalachiablue]

5. All very well said and the sorry truth. For years cons have been shaping

society to value majoring in business, finance and tech to the detriment of the arts and humanities which foster a more broadly educated public.

It's too much, not healthy and can lead to to an unbalanced society.

In the 1980s during Reagan, I remember how B School was all the rage. The movie Wall Street with Gordon Gekko, the wealthy corporate raider and villan influenced many young people to go into business and investment banking.

And the ethos of greed is good is still very much with us, sorry to say.

Years ago during the 2008 financial crisis, the columnist Evan Thomas discussed this development. In his college English class he showed the film, Wall Street. He wanted the students to see the dark side of corporate corruption, but instead they admired Gekko and were thrilled at story's theme of success and money. They missed the point by a mile.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Thomas

[HeartachesNhangovers]

7. The article "blames" demographics and the students themselves

There are simply not enough college-age bodies to fill all the available seats, and the students that are enrolling are less likely to study liberal arts. Students are understandably reluctant to study subjects that typically don't lead to stable, well-paying jobs. Also, their parents are probably also pointing them away from majors that are going to see them living in their old bedrooms after they graduate.