Campus Reform: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Small government conservatives and libertarians in North Carolina should be rejoicing.  With the ongoing budget cuts (15% or about $405 million) to the UNC system, the Board of Governors has, at least in part, done a fantastic job offsetting the costs. 

After reviewing the end of the year reports from the universities within the UNC System, the Board of Governors decided to eliminate 60 degree programs.  Some of the degrees were permanently discontinued while others were combined with similar, successful programs.

While raising the student tuition over $200 for in-state students after several years of tuition hikes is unnecessary, I can commend the Board of Governors for wanting to eliminate wasteful programs and attempting to provide a more efficient system in higher education.

The Charlotte observer highlighted the major program cuts at four of the universities:

UNC Charlotte

Seven programs were eliminated at UNC Charlotte, including teacher licensure programs in English, French, German and Spanish. These can still be offered in other ways, said Chancellor Phil Dubois. Those individual programs each had just a few students.

UNC Chapel Hill

UNC Chapel Hill officials also made some tough decisions. One of the four cuts there was a well-regarded doctoral program in linguistics that serves a handful of students, said Chancellor Holden Thorp.

"It's a distinguished program, but you don't get any economies of scale."

N.C. Central, N.C. State

NCCU loses about a dozen programs in areas like art, education, physical education, chemistry, French, history and physics. That doesn't mean those disciplines have been wiped out entirely. Rather, many are sub-specialties that may now be combined with other disciplines. One example: An NCCU degree in K-12 theater arts education was eliminated, and the university will instead offer it as a concentration within the larger theater program.

N.C. State, too, is forced to focus more on its strengths. Its best education areas are science and math, so it will continue those, said Chancellor Randy Woodson. Several other graduate education courses in middle grades education and curriculum and instruction were discontinued.

"We decided there are areas of education others can do better," Woodson said. "It's a reflection of our having to think systemwide of what we can and can't afford to do."

I would only encourage the Board of Governors to continue their "more aggressive approach" and eliminate more wasteful or pointless programs/classes offered in the public universities.  For starters, the Board of Governors could also eliminate the UNCG's latest "fit and phat" program. 

The UNC Board of Governors have provided a great example of how to be fiscally responsible and still maintain I would also encourage other state university systems to do the same.  Many of the degree programs and courses offered on college campuses today are only wasteful to taxpayers, students and professors.  The University of Baltimore offers a course on "Zombies in Popular Media" which allows students to watch 16 Zombie movies and read zombie comics, the University of Virginia offers a course entitled "Gaga for Gaga" a class on Lady Gag's influence on gender expression and feminism and UCLA offers a course on "Queer Musicology" which focuses on the "possibility that being gay makes music by gay composers sound different to you than it would if you were straight."

Do these courses prepare students for "the real world" or obtaining a job after college?  Most likely, no.  So, it's time for the leaders of the university systems to reign in pointless courses and programs and focus on providing quality education to its students.