Sophia Sousa 

News Writer 

Image courtesy of UNCG 

On Feb. 1, UNC Greensboro Chancellor Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr., announced his decisions on which programs he would cut following initial recommendations from Provost Dr. Debbie Storrs. You can find the list of programs here. UNC Greensboro will discontinue 20 programs despite ongoing pushback from both faculty and staff.  

All indications are that students registered in the affected programs will be able to complete their degrees, and faculty in these programs will maintain their positions until the phase-out process is complete. In a report by Higher Ed Dive senior editor Natalie Schwartz, UNCG spokesperson Kimberly Osborne stated that twenty faculty members and three staff members work in the affected programs and may see their jobs impacted. However, according to Schwartz, some “may be able to continue at the university, such as by staying to teach general education courses.” 

According to Chancellor Gilliam, the program cuts are due to decreased enrollment. As Schwartz reported, enrollment has declined from 20,196 students in fall 2019 to 17,978 in fall 2022. This regression in enrollment “led to a November vote by the UNC System’s Board of Governors to cap state funding losses at three regional universities: UNC-Ashville, UNC-Greensboro, and UNC-Pembroke,” as Joe Killian reported for NC Newsline.  

Hunter Funk, writing for WFMY News 2, quoted Gilliam as saying, “We can’t cut any more staff, we’re down to the bone, and using your reserves is a very bad strategy generally, and a bad long-term strategy, so we then had to say, because I did that to protect the academic core, but now our choices leave us to look at the academic core.” In announcing the program cuts, Chancellor Gilliam wrote, “These programmatic choices were difficult, and I recognize they will disappoint some of us. Provost Storrs and I independently reviewed all forms of data and listened carefully to everyone who contributed to the APR process.”  

While the university will cut a bachelor’s degree program in religious studies, it will form a new concentration under the Liberal and Professional Studies Program, a solution Dr. Gregory Grieve and the religious studies faculty proposed. “This comes with an expectation they will recruit new students and generate additional student credit hours with online offerings and shorter-term semesters to meet a growing need for flexibility of working adults,” Gilliam says. The university will also continue to offer lower-division physics courses required for STEM majors, even as the physics major discontinues.   

With the final decision made, how did students, alums, faculty, and staff react to the news? The UNCG chapter of the AAUP, creators of the petition against program elimination at UNCG that received over 3,900 signatures from current undergraduates, graduate students, alums, and faculty, published a response. Their statement included their belief that “The Chancellor’s Feb. 1 decision to eliminate 20 departments, programs, and course tracks goes against the overwhelming vote of the Faculty Senate and violates UNCG’s own governance policies as well as the UNC System Code. We are devastated by the harm inflicted on our colleagues, students, university, and community. And we will continue to work to restore trust and ensure that UNCG offers students a robust education in the liberal arts and sciences.”  

Faye Stewart, a professor in the Department of Languages, Literature, and Culture, believes the university is losing programs that create diversity on campus. Stewart shared her reaction with WXII 12, saying, “I am grieving for my department. I am grieving for the loss of cultural studies on our campus.” Senior physics student Holly Buroughs shared with WXII 12 that the department “put a lot of effort into fighting for this program.” Buroughs summed up the outcome: “Frustrating is an understatement.”  

While most expect the Feb. 1 decision to be final, faculty and students will continue to advocate for the individuals affected by the discontinued programs.