The college will eliminate or consolidate nearly half of Columbia’s programs in a historic overhaul. 

The Board of Trustees met on Monday, Dec. 16 and approved the recommendations of Senior Vice President and Provost Marcella David to cut or consolidate the college’s academic offerings in order to save an estimated $5 million over two years. The college will now offer 33 undergraduate and seven graduate degrees.

The college expects that up to 25 full-time faculty will lose their jobs, including tenured faculty and those with teaching-track contracts. This includes some retiring faculty who will not be replaced, the college said in an email. No tenure-track faculty will be impacted, and faculty will be notified in January.

“It’s not about just trying to close the deficit,” said Interim President and CEO Jerry Tarrer. “This is a proactive step to ensure that current students and especially students, as we look forward, understand the value of their education that they’re getting from our institution.”

Tarrer told the Chronicle that the two-year plan presented to the board would allow the college to “break even” by Fiscal Year 2027, which begins in 2026.

The college currently has a $17 million financial deficit, which is down from $38 million at the start of the year. The deficit nearly doubled during Columbia’s historic part-time faculty strike in Fall 2023. The college is also facing stiff enrollment declines, including about 1,000 fewer students this fall.

In the email sent to the campus community, the college outlined the changes approved by the board. They include:

• A new marketing major that will include the current marketing, social media and digital strategy, public relations and advertising programs;
• A new animation and computer graphics major that will include game art, animation, computer animation and traditional animation;
• A new game and interactive media design major will include game design and immersive media, programming and user experience (UX);
• A new journalism and communication major that will combine the current journalism, radio, photojournalism and communication majors; 
• A creative writing major that will include the current creative writing and English programs;

• A  new theatre arts production and practice major will consolidate the theatre, theatre design and technology programs.

• A new visual arts degree will include photography, fine arts and illustration, eliminating those individual majors.

• The design management major will be merged with the arts management program to be the arts and entertainment management program. 

• The Dance major and Dance BFA will merge into a dance major, eliminating the BFA. 

Tarrer said the new program offerings are focused on creative careers and ensure that what the school offers will align with market demand and student demand. “We want to not just be here,” he said. “We want to be thriving.”

Out of the current 58 majors Columbia offers, 18 of them have instructional costs that exceed what students pay in tuition. One of the most costly is the ASL-English interpretation major, as the Chronicle previously reported. The others are dance and art history.

The following degrees will no longer be offered at all:

• environmental and sustainability studies;

• ASL-English interpretation;
• cultural studies and
• art history.

“Columbia College is still one of the most affordable arts-focused institutions in this country and now that we’re clarifying what it is we’re offering, we’re making sure that our offerings are closely aligned with industry demand, with [what] students want and they’re gonna look at the price tag and they’re gonna go ‘this is really good value,’” Tarrer said in an interview after the board meeting.

The College-Wide Curriculum Committee gave its preliminary recommendations to David last month and agreed with her initial recommendation to eliminate the art history and environmental studies majors, as the Chronicle previously reported. The Faculty Senate completed its review this month after faculty worked all fall to redesign the programs in their schools.

The decision to cut programs comes just about six months after the board voted in May that the college had met the conditions for “adverse circumstances,” which allows the college to lay off faculty with tenure appointments. The board also voted to reduce the college’s core requirements from 42 to 30, following the recommendation of former President and CEO Kwang-Wu Kim who stepped down last summer.

In an advisory report to the board, Kim said he expected the college to layoff 11 to 13 full-time faculty across the former English and Creative Writing, Humanities, History & Social Sciences and the Science and Mathematics department because of changes to the core. But that number has now doubled.

Tenured faculty who lose their jobs will get a full year of salary and benefits for the next academic year as outlined by the college’s Statement of Policy. The benefits will start in June 2025. 

The college had 233 full-time faculty as of this fall.

Teaching-track faculty with three or more years as teaching-track at the college will receive pay for the Fall 2025 semester and benefits through the end of 2025.

“It is essential for the college to be transparent about the processes and circumstances that led to the announced decisions regarding faculty separations,” said Rojhat Avsar, president of Faculty Senate. “It is important to explain why certain decisions were made while others were, or could, not. Full-time faculty members expect the college to uphold high ethical standards in its major decisions and to demonstrate compassion by making faculty members feel valued within the Columbia community. Many of these individuals have served the institution for many years, even during challenging circumstances.” 

The Faculty Senate is not scheduled to meet again until February but will have a special session this Friday, Dec. 20, said Avsar, an economics professor in the School of Communication and Culture.

Jenna Davis, president of the Student Government Association, said she was “deeply saddened” by the news.

“The programs and faculty that are lost are devastating to the Columbia Community,” Davis said. “It is hard to remain positive with news like this, but I hope that the college will support its students in this heavy transition.”

Copy edited by Manuel Nocera

This story has been updated.

Resumen en Español: 

Seis meses después de  presentar el plan para eliminar y/o unir un tercio de los programas académicos de la escuela con el fin de cerrar el déficit financiero de $17 millones, el Consejo de Administración de Columbia se reunió hoy y presentaron una nueva matriz de programas que serán ofrecidos a los nuevos estudiantes para el semestre de otoño del 2025.

El colegio calcula que hasta 25 profesores a tiempo completo perderán su empleo, incluidos a profesores titulares y los que tienen contratos de profesor.

Estudios medioambientales y de sostenibilidad, licenciatura en Interpretación ASL-Inglés, estudios culturales e historia del arte son las titulaciones que dejarán de ofrecerse en absoluto.

Los estudiantes en estos programas van a poder continuar hasta la graduación. 

Columbia ofrecerá 33 titulaciones de grado y siete de postgrado. 

“Lo que hemos presentado hoy al consejo es un plan para alcanzar el equilibrio financiero o el punto de equilibrio en el año fiscal ’27, es decir, un plan de dos años”, dijo Jerry Tarrer, Consejero Delegado y Presidente interino. “No se trata sólo de cerrar el déficit. Se trata de un paso proactivo para garantizar que los estudiantes actuales y especialmente los estudiantes, de cara al futuro, comprendan el valor de la educación que están recibiendo de nuestra institución”.

Resumen en Español por Doreen Abril Albuerne Rodriguez

Resumen en Español editado por Manuel Nocera