Columbia College Chicago plans to cut 11 undergraduate and graduate programs and eliminate up to 25 faculty positions next academic year to “promote future growth centered around student success” amid ongoing budget trouble and declining enrollment, the school announced Monday evening.
“We wanted to make sure that our curriculum reflects what industry needs are and what parents and students are asking for,” interim President Jerry Tarrer told the Tribune. “Those are the primary considerations … to ensure that for the short and long haul we are providing a curriculum that will help to deliver professional success for young creatives who choose Columbia.”
The school will decrease its number of undergraduate degrees from 58 to 33 by consolidating some and cutting others, Tarrer said. They plan to entirely discontinue four undergraduate and seven graduate programs, which will impact about 175 students.
The undergraduate majors set to be discontinued are environmental and sustainability studies, American Sign Language, cultural studies and art history. The graduate programs are creative writing, user experience and interaction design, cinema and television producing, acting and contemporary performance making, fine arts and photography.
Students already enrolled in these programs will have the ability to finish out, or they can pivot to a new one if they choose, Tarrer said. No further cuts or consolidations are under consideration for the 2026-27 academic year, he added.
In making cuts, he said the school — with input from faculty and deans — considered how the programs aligned with current market demand “as determined by enrollment and what employers are looking for.” He said in a September message to faculty and staff that most programs cost more to run than the school collects in tuition due to enrollment of fewer than 50 students, calling it “not a sustainable educational model.”
Tarrer said he hopes simplified programming will boost enrollment at the school, which has seen about a 36% drop in the past decade. For example, Tarrer believes the new undergraduate theatre arts production and practice degree, which combines the previous theatre and theatre design degrees, recognizes the “interconnectivity of these different areas and will enhance the student experience.”
Better experiences lead to better financial performance, Tarrer said. He expects these moves, along with other cost-saving measures, to lead to a break-even budget in two years, what he called “equilibrium financially.”
The school has faced dire financial straits, with a budget deficit that was once expected to increase to nearly $40 million. This fiscal year, Tarrer said there’s a budgeted deficit of $17 million, which will be cut in half next year and close to break even the year after that. The school also increased tuition 5% for continuing students next school year, and 10% for new students, as first reported by the Columbia Chronicle.
“The vision put into this isn’t necessarily primarily driven by financial reasons,” university spokesperson Lambrini Lukidis said. “This was something that the institution wanted to do, to improve the curriculum, improve the outcomes as well as the experience.”
The college also announced that it plans to launch a beauty management program in the fall focusing on “diversity and sustainability initiatives” that’s geared toward traditional students and working professionals. Other new programs, such as textile design and professional writing, are also being considered for fall 2026, Tarrer said.
As part of the “realignment,” the school plans to eliminate up to 25 full-time faculty who teach in programs that are being combined with others or cut. Affected faculty will likely be notified in early January, and will receive severance packages, he said.
Columbia laid off 70 staff members in June, also citing financial woes and declining student enrollment. The cuts, which hit 20% of unionized staff, were criticized by one staffer as students and employees bearing the brunt of “financial missteps.” Hundreds of adjunct faculty members went on strike last year for almost 50 days, believed to be the longest strike in higher education history, after the school eliminated classes to cut costs.
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