Dive Temporary:
- Columbia Faculty Chicago laid off 20 full-time school members final week because the personal nonprofit appears to “put money into areas that correspond to robust scholar demand and progress potential,” Suzanne McBride, interim senior vice chairman and provost, mentioned in a group message.
- Tenured school members held 18 of the eradicated positions, whereas teaching-track school held the opposite two. Lots of the layoffs have been normally training areas and tied to an initiative to cut back the school’s core training necessities, giving college students extra flexibility of their curriculum to take courses of their majors or minors.
- Columbia has shed workers and moved to chop applications over the previous yr because it tries to stabilize its funds and downsize in response to falling enrollment.
Dive Perception:
In Could 2024, Columbia’s then-president issued a report declaring a possible “existential menace” if the school didn’t handle its diminished enrollment and ballooning deficit.
A lot of the school’s monetary ache has stemmed from its shrinking scholar physique. In fall 2023, Columbia had 6,529 college students, down 4.3% from 5 years prior and 35.6% from a decade earlier.
Management has attributed the drop-off to nationwide tendencies, together with demographic declines and shifting attitudes in regards to the worth of faculty. On prime of every thing else, the school skilled the longest strike by adjunct school in U.S. historical past in 2023.
With the sliding enrollment has come monetary bleeding. Its working deficit surpassed $20 million between fiscal years 2021 and 2023, earlier than falling to $6.3 million in 2024. The faculty hasn’t reported an working surplus since fiscal 2019.
The establishment has appeared to deal with each its monetary and enrollment woes partly by paring down its providing.
Columbia has 58 tutorial applications. Previous displays have proven that the massive majority of these applications lose cash per scholar, with their prices outweighing tuition income. A dozen applications misplaced $10,001 to $20,000 yearly of their operations.
“Simple arithmetic reveals we’re having to ship a lot of credit to a shrinking variety of college students with shrinking obtainable sources,” Interim President Jerry Tarrer mentioned in a group message in August, pointing to fall enrollment numbers that got here to five,570 college students.
In December, the school introduced it might lower 11 levels and mix 9 others into current applications or new concentrations — eliminating some 25 school jobs within the course of. Tarrer mentioned on the time that the cuts have been “obligatory for the long-term success of our cherished faculty.” The canceled applications will cease taking new college students this fall.
Together with fewer majors, Columbia has moved to cut back its core training curriculum to present college students the power to take extra courses of their majors, full minors or take programs in an outdoor self-discipline, similar to enterprise.
Columbia has set a purpose of rebuilding its enrollment to eight,500 college students — which might symbolize a rise of almost 3,000 college students from fall 2024 ranges however nonetheless nicely beneath 2013 ranges. Officers additionally need to enhance its retention and commencement charges.
