The UNC Board of Governors has officially approved program cuts at UNC Asheville and UNC Greensboro.
The unanimous vote is the final step in a months-long process and means that four departments and two language concentrations at UNCA and a combination of 20 programs, majors and minors at UNCG are no longer available to new students.
Cuts at UNC Asheville include drama, philosophy, religious studies and ancient Mediterranean studies departments, as well as French and German language concentrations.
Cuts at UNC Greensboro include anthropology, physics and religious studies majors, as well as minors in Chinese, Russian and Korean language courses. Several graduate programs are also included.
Both chancellors, Kimberly van Noort and Franklin Gilliam, spoke at the board meeting. They stressed that reductions were needed at their institutions to address years of revenue losses.
Over the past five years, UNC Asheville’s student body has dropped by 25%. That left van Noort with a $6 million budget shortfall this year.
She told the board that she believes the school will have “strong news” for the fall semester.
“However, it is my responsibility as chancellor and the responsibility of my academic team to ensure that we correct the budget difficulties that we’ve had,” van Noort said. “And to position the university for future success, so that we will not deal with this ever again.”
In about the same time frame, UNC Greensboro has lost over $22 million in tuition and fee revenue with a 10% decline in enrollment.
“We’ve lost 2,500 students in four years — that’s a whole class,” Gilliam said. “Institutions must evolve, (we) can’t remain static. Given the disruption in higher education, it would be neglectful to not respond in a meaningful way.”
Both chancellors said that although they will be eliminating departments, programs and majors, their universities will still offer courses in some of the affected programs.
Van Noort said her team is working on whether to offer the courses in another department or as their own minor. She said one department, religious studies, will be transitioned into a minor and will have “robust offerings.”
In his address to the board, Gilliam pointed out that UNCG’s math department has the same number of tenured or tenure-track faculty as psychology — a major that has ten times the number of students.
“What I think Chancellor van Noort and I are trying to do is shape the evolution of the institution in a way that provides our students with the greatest chance for success,” Gilliam said. “And our faculty to do the kind of research that they're interested in.”
It’s unclear how many faculty members will be laid off as a result of the cuts or how much money eliminating programs will save either UNC Asheville or UNC Greensboro. In the coming months, both universities will start a “teach-out” process to finish graduating the remaining students in affected departments.
Students, faculty and community members at both universities have spent months protesting and advocating against the cuts.
Faculty from UNC Asheville sent a 25-page letter to the Board of Governors ahead of the meeting. The letter was included in the board’s prepared materials but wasn’t discussed in the committee or full board meetings.
In addition to voting unanimously to approve the cuts at both schools, several board members commended the chancellors.
“I think what you all are doing is courageous and necessary,” BOG member Sonja Phillips Nichols said. “We know your campuses will not be the only campuses we have this conversation with. I see moving forward, we're going to have to do this on every single campus. I'm hoping everybody else is getting ready for this very hard, but very necessary road.”
At the meeting, the UNC System also announced it was piloting a guaranteed admissions program at UNC Asheville, UNC Greensboro, Elizabeth City State, Fayetteville State, UNC Pembroke and Winston-Salem State. Any North Carolina high school student with a minimum GPA of 2.8 will be automatically admitted to those institutions.
David English, the System’s vice president for Academic Affairs, said the pilot is being launched in part to “help address and stabilize campus enrollments.”
“It’s a way of notifying students who meet minimum academic qualifications that there is a space for them in the UNC System — and that the UNC System wants them,” English said. “The goal is to try to boost confidence that college is within reach and introduce students to schools they may not have considered.”
