“The status quo is not sustainable,” said Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman, following another year of decline across 10 of its 13 branch campuses.
Institutions everywhere are struggling with excessive budget deficits, and with little help in state funding, the decision for more drastic cuts peers on the horizon.
Political interference and declining enrollment, two of higher education's most formidable trends, have already begun to impact several colleges and universities this Fall—and at one major university system, the two are coalescing.
Recommended for the chopping block was the entire Department of World Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, which houses bachelor's programs in Chinese Studies, French, German Studies, Russian Studies and Spanish.
The merger is the second announced in two years, which the president believes is "part of a strategic repositioning of the entire WVU System for success in a challenging collegiate landscape."
