Last month, UNC Asheville chancellor Kimberly van Noort proposed the closure of several academic programs and departments in response to budget deficits. The cuts were prompted by UNCA’s declining enrollment and subsequent financial difficulties. But the proposed cuts significantly undermine UNCA’s liberal-arts mission.
The school proposes to cut the following programs:
- Ancient Mediterranean Studies (degree program and academic department)
- Drama (degree program and academic department)
- Philosophy (degree program and academic department)
- Religious Studies (degree program and academic department)
- Language concentrations (French and German)
Looking at the ledger, these cuts make sense. Student demand for the programs is low. And over the past five years, UNCA has lost 25 percent of its enrollment. Serious academic program review is one logical response to such losses, since instructional spending comprises a large part of UNCA’s budget. (UNCA’s other steps to address its budget woes, including the comprehensive review of staff positions and the creation of a budget task force, are commendable.)
However, these proposed program cuts simply paper over deeper problems at the struggling university. The UNC System’s 2022-2027 Strategic Plan, “Higher Expectations,” calls for “excellent and diverse institutions”:
The University’s constituent institutions are individually distinct and mission-focused and collectively comprise an inclusive and vibrant System that is committed to excellence and the development of a diverse community of students, faculty, and staff.
But UNC Asheville’s unique mission has been eroded. Its new identity as a “liberal arts and sciences” institution makes it less distinct, not more so. UNCA added sciences to its mission in July 2022. It now offers majors in New Media, Atmospheric Studies, and Environmental Studies. Nevertheless, in the past two years, enrollment has continued to decline. Offering enticing new majors is just poaching students from existing departments, not creating more demand for the university as a whole.
If UNC Asheville wants to survive, it must find ways to distinguish itself.UNCA now touts “relationship-driven education” and “small class sizes, close collaboration, and high-impact experiences” as selling points. But these aren’t enough to make up for a curriculum that is almost indistinguishable from that of most other UNC schools. To be sure, the school still calls its humanities program “a hallmark of UNC Asheville.” But a school that eliminates philosophy and classics isn’t taking humanities seriously. (In fact, the words “liberal-arts curriculum” were also victims of the 2022 mission-statement revision.)
Other institutions in the system offer real distinctives. Several are historically black universities. Many now advertise extremely low tuition through the NC Promise Program. UNC-Chapel Hill is the flagship. NC State has a world-class engineering program. Compare UNCA’s generic values of “diversity and inclusion, innovation, and sustainability” to Western Carolina’s “robust connectedness with surrounding communities in Southern Appalachia.” Or App State’s “rural mountain heritage.”
These are real reasons for students to choose one school over another—to see a school as unique. In an environment where too many schools are chasing too few students, universities must make themselves stand out.
If UNCA wants to survive as an institution, it must find ways to attract students—ways to distinguish itself amongst its competitors and peers. Its current plan is a tacit acceptance of decline that merely stanches the bleeding. It’s not too late for UNC Asheville to reverse course—to lean in as the only dedicated liberal-arts institution in the state. It should do so.
Jenna A. Robinson is president of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal.