ASU Disestablishes programs and degrees

I’m in Oklahoma at the moment (more anon perhaps) but was dismayed, to put it mildly, to see the following announcement come from ASU’s Provost:

The funding lost in the recently revised FY09 state budget has forced Arizona State University to cap enrollment and to close applications to next year’s freshman class on March 1, five months earlier than usual. …

ASU is also closing about four dozen academic programs, many on the Tempe campus, and scaling down administrative operations at its Polytechnic and West campuses, in response to state budget reductions, which have totaled $88 million or 18% of the university’s base state budget since June 2008. …

Additional cuts in state funding in FY 10 would force ASU to consider additional staff layoffs, a substantial increase in tuition and fees, further limitations on student enrollment, and closing the Polytechnic and West campuses entirely…

The new FY09 budget, after a reduction of $88 million in state funding, reduces ASU’s per-student funding from the state general fund to what it was 10 years ago. ASU received $7,976 per student in 2008. The $6,500 per student the university receives for 2009 is only $4 more per student than it received in 1998…

In addition to these changes, another three dozen academic programs have stopped taking student applications and the process of disestablishing them has begun

There are going to be staff and contract faculty layoffs in many programs. Thankfully, my own unit – the Honors College – seems to have survived this round, though scrolling down the list of programs facing the axe was not a pleasant experience. I hope the Republicans in the State Senate are happy.

More info here.