Columbia College, the private media and art school, is facing questions about its future as leaders have determined the school faces “imminent, serious financial difficulty.”
Columbia’s enrollment is down 36% from a decade ago, and the decline is expected to continue as the school’s dire financial picture has forced them to combine academic departments and consider cutting classes in artistic disciplines for which the school is known.
The Board of Trustees voted in 2018 to allow the school to operate with a deficit for five years, but declining enrollment, pandemic tuition freezes and tuition rebates because of a faculty strike prevented the school from reversing the downward trend, Columbia president Kwang‑Wu Kim said last month.
