Empty classrooms fill the halls of Indiana colleges after the Commission for Higher Education cut, consolidated, merged or suspended more than 400 degree programs among six colleges and universities on June 30.
Per the new Indiana state budget bill, Purdue University, Ball State University, Indiana University, Indiana State University, University of Southern Indiana and Ivy Tech Community Colleges are cutting programs that the state deems as “having a low employment rate.”
Within the Indiana University system, IU Bloomington, Kokomo, East, Indianapolis, Northwest, South Bend, Southeast and the School of Medicine, 43 programs were cut, with 206 being suspended. This is a total of 249 programs affected.
According to the CHE, these six schools combined offer around 3,400 degree programs. With the new budget cuts, over 400 degrees are at risk of being dropped. This is nearly one in five programs being taken away.
“It’s community college, but it’s still a great opportunity, and when you cut degree programs, people lose out on those opportunities,” junior Yoslen Santana said. “If they have something that they want to do, but the state is telling them no, obviously, that’s going to impede their future. The state shouldn’t be able to decide that they know better than you.”
In a statement on June 30, Mike Braun praised both the cuts and consolidations to keep students on track with skills that will help with their employment.
“This will help students make more informed decisions about the degree they want to pursue and ensure there is a direct connection between the skills students are gaining through higher education and the skills they need most,” Braun said.
College students such as Melanie Contreras, alumna of LHS and student at IUI, disagree with Braun.
“I think that’s dumb, especially when there are institutions that are focused more on certain subjects. It seems unfair to cut these other equally important majors,” Contreras said.“How are they gonna know what’s going to be beneficial, you know? People can argue all day that the programs are useless, but they wouldn’t know the different ways they can help because they’ve never taken it personally.”
Both students and teachers are in disagreement with the recent bill.
“ I applaud Indiana for trying to do something different, but to get rid of certain things that are helpful will hurt more than help,” history teacher Bryan Looker said.
The bill also requires a minimum of 15 graduates for a bachelor’s degree and ten graduates for an associate’s degree. Of the 75 programs being eliminated, 68 have zero currently enrolled students.
All students enrolled in eliminated or suspended courses will be allowed to finish their degrees.
