With UNCG chancellor set to announce final decision on program cuts, many cry foul

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s academic portfolio review wrapped up earlier this month. There were recommendations for more than a dozen undergraduate and graduate-level program cuts including religious studies, physics and anthropology.

The stated goal was to collaborate with faculty, staff, and administrators to better meet student needs, remain competitive, and ensure continued funding for courses deemed to be sustainable. But many have cried foul, saying the process was flawed. 

Academic portfolio reviews, where university officials reassess their departments’ strengths and weaknesses, are nothing new. They happen at schools across the country. UNCG administrators hope that their review which looks at the years between 2020 and 2023 will strengthen successful programs, identify unsustainable ones, and help create the right mix of academic offerings to meet changing student needs.

Chancellor Franklin Gilliam says although the school has run a deficit the past few years, it’s still on sound financial footing with strong ratings from S&P and Moody’s. But he’s concerned about the future stability of the university.  He calls the academic review a best practice in higher ed to deal with emerging challenges.

"I’ve been in this business 40 years, and I never thought I’d see it come to this, the kind of headwinds that we’re facing — loss of public trust, this bizarre economy, the attack on higher ed generally," he says. "And none of us would have predicted 30 years ago that you’d have a smaller college-going age cohort."

And fewer of that cohort are choosing to even go to college. UNCG’s enrollment numbers reflect that with this year’s total down by nearly 2,500 students from its pre-pandemic peaks.

But the numbers do represent an 11% increase in first-time college students from last year, and the trend lines for many departments look promising. That includes some programs, like anthropology, that are slated for discontinuation following the review, and it’s leaving faculty members like Robert Anemone scratching their heads.

"From my perspective, this has been a very successful department that has been allowed to sort of wither," says Anemone. "I mean they’ve starved us of faculty lines as people have approached retirement and have retired, and now they’re basically dinging us for being skinny."

The rubrics used to measure departmental success seem — on the surface at least — to be clear: cost and revenue, demand and efficiency, external grants, and student success. Anthropology meets expectations in two categories, approaches them in the others, and scored just above the numeric cut off. Beyond the rubrics, Anemone points to his department’s role in fulfilling what he calls the university’s mission of developing globally engaged students. In the summers he and his colleagues mentor them through fieldwork around the world.  

"I’m not interested in training students for their first job out of college," says Anemone. "Like many of us in arts and sciences, I’m in it for the long game. I’m trying to train citizens who are able to understand their society and others, to think critically about culture, about politics, about power, class and race. We teach about a lot of topics that are not something that the political structure in our state is really interested in higher education doing these days."

Tensions between emphasizing workforce training and liberal arts education are not limited to North Carolina. Waning enrollment in humanities majors is a national reality. In today’s world, students are like clients, and Gilliam says many are gravitating toward programs like UNCG's Bryan School of Business and Economics. Gilliam says the equation for him is how to support growing demand in those areas while at the same time sustaining programs with less student demand. How do you pay for it all when you are a tuition-dependent university with fewer students?

But these fiscal concerns are far from the minds of UNCG students majoring in the programs now on the chopping block. At a recent students-only forum attended by the chancellor and provost, many of them spoke out in defense of their areas of study and their faculty mentors.

Among them was junior anthropology and religious studies major Sophia Rosenberg. They have a minor in video gaming and esports studies. They're also the social media officer for the anthropology club as well as president of the religious studies club.

"I along with the past, present and future students of UNCG, urge you to reconsider your decision to discontinue religious studies, anthropology and the other programs being considered for elimination," says Rosenberg. "I don't want to graduate from UNCG only to be ashamed that I was ever associated with it in the first place."

UNCG senior anthropology and archaeology major James Cone also addressed the chancellor and provost. Cone comes from a low-income family that relied on a series of grants to continue his education at the university. 

"UNCG accepts and embraces low-income individuals who come from low-income families, and transforms them from statistics to leaders," says Cone. "The anthropology department at UNCG has and continues to turn individuals such as myself into citizens who change the world for the better. To get rid of this department is to remove our right to an education from this university, is to deny the study of anthropology to low-income families, and is to deny the future from having strong and powerful anthropologists who know how to change the world for the better."

Cone says he was taken aback after hearing news of the cuts. 

"One second we’re fine, we’re being told that we’re fine, and then suddenly without warning we’re just kind of put on spot as, ‘Hey, your department’s on the chopping block and there’s not a whole lot you can do about it,’" says Cone.

Religious studies professor Ashlee Andrews is facing the discontinuation of her program. She says she continues to be amazed by the diverse and highly motivated students here, who understand the privilege of education and bring joy into the classroom.

"And to be a part of that joy, and also to be a part of watching these people just learn things and discover things about the world and themselves," says Andrews. "Like, it is truly the greatest privilege of a life, and I’m going to get emotional talking about this, but I mean ... it’s just like a ... it’s a really special kind of work to do. And it’s heartbreaking to think about not being able to do it, it’s heartbreaking to think about having to leave this particular institution because I just love our students so much."

For some of the tenured professors like Andrews who worked for years to gain that level of security in their position, this is not just the loss of a job, but potentially the loss of a career decades in the making.

"You work and you work and you work for it," she says. "And I can’t tell you how much my family has helped me to be able to do this because I’ve also got two kids. And you do it because there is this expectation of safety, the safety in tenure. But you also do it because I can’t imagine myself doing anything else."

In his January 16 Message from the Chancellor, Gilliam shared the dean’s recommendations for discontinuation. He says they’re not a reflection on the excellence of the faculty, students and staff involved in each program. All students in good standing will be able to complete their chosen areas of study at UNCG. And the wind-down process could take years.

But questions remain for students just embarking on their majors in departments that will be shuttered, and faculty already in search of new employment elsewhere. And with the administration’s plan for more frequent reviews in the future, will there be enough new professors willing to take the chance?

On Monday, the faculty senate issued a resolution to censure Chancellor Gilliam and Provost Debbie Storrs for the way the review was conducted. Calling the action a consequence of mis- and disinformation, Gilliam and Storrs defended the process and they vowed to continue taking necessary steps for the best interest of the University and its students. 

Gilliam will announce the final decision on programs to be discontinued on February 1. Next, the process of identifying other academic programs for investment will begin.