Budget Cuts Cause Some Colleges to Cut Key Academic Programs - City Town Info

Slate reports that Minnesota State University Moorhead and the University of the District of Columbia may soon cut notable departments -- like English, physics and history -- in an effort to balance their budgets in the face of marginalized state funding. Columnist Rebecca Schuman, an adjunct professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, suggested the trend indicates that higher education's business model is "backward," and that education, "the very raison d'être for a university" also seems the most disposable. Another point of contention for Schuman: the possible prioritization of professors' and administrators' salaries over students' educations. University President Edna Mora Szymanski suggested that years of declining enrollments have contributed to the problem, and that programs with the largest enrollment drops would be more vulnerable than popular ones.

http://www.citytowninfo.com/career-and-education-news/articles/budget-cuts-cause-some-colleges-to-cut-key-academic-programs-13120401