Christina Westman dreamed of working with Parkinson鈥檚 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鈥檚 part of a wave of 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 .
The cuts mean more than just savings, or even job losses. Often, they create who chose a campus because of certain degree programs and then wrote checks or signed up for student loans.
鈥淔or me, it鈥檚 really been anxiety-ridden,鈥� said Westman, 23, as she began the effort that ultimately led her to transfer to Augsburg University in Minneapolis. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just the fear of the unknown.鈥�
At St. Cloud State, most students will be able to finish their degrees before cuts kick in, but Westman鈥檚 music therapy major was a new one that hadn鈥檛 officially started. She has spent the past three months in a mad dash to find work in a new city and sublet her apartment in St. Cloud after she had already signed a lease. She was moving into her new apartment Friday.
For years, many colleges held off making cuts, said Larry Lee, who was acting president of St. Cloud State but left last month to lead Blackburn College in Illinois.
during the pandemic, but officials hoped the figures would recover to pre-COVID levels and had used federal relief money to prop up their budgets in the meantime, he said.
鈥淭hey were holding on, holding on,鈥� Lee said, noting colleges must now face their new reality.
Higher education made up some ground last fall and in the spring semester, largely as community college enrollment , National Student Clearinghouse Research Center data showed.
But the trend for four-year colleges remains worrisome. Even without growing concerns about the cost of college and the long-term burden of student debt, the pool of young adults is shrinking.
during the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009 and never recovered. Now those smaller classes are preparing to graduate and head off to college.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very difficult math to overcome,鈥� said Patrick Lane, vice president at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, a leading authority on student demographics.
Complicating the situation: the federal government鈥檚 chaotic overhaul of its . Millions of students entered summer break still wondering where they were going to college this fall and how they would pay for it. With jobs still plentiful, although , some experts fear students .
鈥淭his year going into next fall, it鈥檚 going to be bad,鈥� said Katharine Meyer, a fellow in the Governance Studies program for the Brown Center on Education Policy at the nonprofit Brookings Institution. 鈥淚 think a lot of colleges are really concerned they鈥檙e not going to make their enrollment targets.鈥�
Many colleges like St. Cloud State already had started plowing through their budget reserves. The university鈥檚 enrollment rose to around 18,300 students in fall 2010 before steadily falling to about 10,000 students in fall 2023.
St. Cloud State鈥檚 student population has now stabilized, Lee said, but spending was far too high for the reduced number of students. The college鈥檚 budget shortfall totaled $32 million over the past two years, forcing the sweeping cuts.
Some colleges have taken more extreme steps, their doors. That happened at the 1,000-student in Alabama, the 900-student in Missouri, the 350-student Wells College in New York and the 220-student Goddard College in Vermont.
Cuts, however, appear to be more commonplace. Two of got the green light last month to eliminate more than a dozen degree programs ranging from ancient Mediterranean studies to physics.
Arkansas State University announced last fall it was phasing out nine programs. Three of the 64 colleges in the State University of New York system have cut programs amid low enrollment and budget woes.
Other schools slashing and phasing out programs include , Drake University in Iowa, the University of Nebraska campus in Kearney, North Dakota State University and, on the other side of the state, Dickinson State University.
Experts say it鈥檚 just the beginning. Even schools that aren鈥檛 immediately making cuts are reviewing their degree offerings. At Pennsylvania State University, officials are looking for duplicative and under-enrolled academic programs as the number of students shrinks at its branch campuses.
Particularly affected are students in smaller programs and those in the , which now graduate a smaller share of students than 15 years ago.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a humanitarian disaster for all of the faculty and staff involved, not to mention the students who want to pursue this stuff,鈥� said Bryan Alexander, a Georgetown University senior scholar who has written on higher education. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an open question to what extent colleges and universities can cut their way to sustainability.鈥�
For Terry Vermillion, who just retired after 34 years as a music professor at St. Cloud State, the cuts are hard to watch. The nation鈥檚 music programs , he said, with Zoom band nothing short of 鈥渄isastrous鈥� for many public school programs.
鈥淲e were just unable to really effectively teach music online, so there鈥檚 a gap,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd, you know, we鈥檙e just starting to come out of that gap and we鈥檙e just starting to rebound a little bit. And then the cuts are coming.鈥�
For St. Cloud State music majors such as Lilly Rhodes, the biggest fear is what will happen as the program is phased out. New students won鈥檛 be admitted to the department and her professors will look for new jobs.
鈥淲hen you suspend the whole music department, it鈥檚 awfully difficult to keep ensembles alive,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no musicians coming in, so when our seniors graduate, they go on, and our ensembles just keep getting smaller and smaller.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a little difficult to keep going if it鈥檚 like this,鈥� she said.
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This story was first published on Aug. 10, 2024. It was updated on Aug. 21, 2024, to correct the year St. Cloud State University鈥檚 enrollment rose to 18,300 students. That occurred in 2010, not 2020.
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Heather Hollingsworth, The Associated Press
