Elizabeth City State University, the historically Black educational institution in North Carolina, has eliminated four academic programs in an effort to save money. Degree programs in studio art, marine environmental science, physics, and geology will be eliminated. Other programs that were considered for elimination, including history and political science, will be retained.
In addition to the cuts in degree programs, the university will merge the School of Arts and Humanities with the School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology to establish the School of Arts and Sciences. This merger was made to reduce administrative costs.
The cuts are expected to provide savings of $468,000 annually.
To survive, HBCUs are going to have to develop a consortium and have certain schools focus on certain programs and training. For example, if Howard cut out its undergrad program and focused on professional training, then undergrad students would attend other HBCUs for undergrad and then could be funneled to a smaller number of schools that have grad programs. This would support both institutions.
This is a really bad idea.