Total enrollment increased to 4,265 students for Fall 2026, a hopeful rebound after the number of students fell below 4,000 last spring for the first time in more than two decades.
The one-year student retention rate reached 71.2%, the highest it’s been since 2018, according to figures released at the annual State of the College on Wednesday, Oct. 7.
The numbers are helpful and allow us to see Columbia’s progress and provide optimism for the future. But as President and CEO Shantay Bolton said at the meeting, “We are not in the clear, as you heard before. Our financial position remains serious.”
Bolton’s honesty is appreciated. But it isn’t the same as transparency and doesn’t get rid of the uncertainty over what is coming. Columbia needs to be much more specific about how it plans to address the remaining $18 million projected deficit if the goal is to move beyond the cost-cutting measures that defined the past year.
Jeffrey Bethke, interim chief financial officer, told the Faculty Senate on Sept. 25 that the college’s projected budget deficit is expected to fall from more than $40 million last year to about $18 million projected for this fiscal year, a reduction of more than 50%.
How exactly the college is going to decrease the remaining deficit is still unknown. We need to know what the college plans to do to increase enrollment, continue improving retention and bring in more revenue.
As Bolton said in her address, the college can’t cut its way to greatness. It must grow. If growth is the answer, the administration needs to explain what that will look like, especially with far fewer staff.
We don’t expect a full answer of the next steps from the administration immediately. However, students, faculty and staff deserve a clear outline of the college’s priorities, goals and timeline.
The past year was hard. Employees lost jobs, class sizes increased and students experienced changes to the resources available to them. This time, the Columbia community should not have to wait for another round of cuts to learn what comes next.
The positive figures presented at the State of the College meeting are important. But we deserve to know what comes next.
Copy edited by Camila Verzino
