Saint Rose cuts
College makes “painful” decision as a way to reduce financial stress
College to drop 16 bachelor’s degree, 6 master’s degree and 3 certificate programs./
On the heels of $8 million in cuts to administration and staff, The College of Saint Rose said it has decided to end 25 degree and certificate programs.
Programs in art, music, math, science, education and business — representing “a significant part of the college’s history” — will be lost in order to save $5.97 million. Students currently enrolled in these programs will be able to finish their degrees, but the college will not allow any new students to enroll in those programs.
“It is no secret that weighty financial challenges are pressing on colleges and universities throughout the country. The higher education sector is in a period of real transformation. We are being proactive by making hard decisions now, as painful as they are,” said Interim President Marcia White in a notice posted on its website Tuesday.
“These decisions are necessary to the long-term future of Saint Rose and come as part of a series of difficult choices we have had to make this year in order to have a balanced budget by 2023,” White wrote.
The decision will affect 10 percent of undergraduate students and 4 percent of the graduate students enrolled in the college’s 109 programs.
“These programs have enriched the lives of all of us at the college in some way, but in order for Saint Rose to continue living its mission, we must arrive at a sustainable budget,” said Jeff Stone, college trustees chair. “Carrying a structural deficit makes it nearly impossible for Saint Rose to weather storms like COVID -19, which handed us millions of dollars in revenue loss in one year. We need to build a stronger base – one where operating expenses and revenue align – in order to meet current challenges in higher education and the challenges yet to come.”
Many of the programs at the college, with a $71 million budget, have declining or historically low enrollment. Others were eliminated because the costs to maintain them was higher than the revenue they generated.
The move will eliminate 33 of the college’s 151 full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty positions in December 2021. Also, eight full-time visiting faculty contracts will not be renewed. The reductions are also in overhead costs, curricular and cocurricular adjustments, and the distinguished professor program, a retirement incentive for full-time faculty with 20 years or more of service, according to the college.
White and other college administrators worked with a faculty committee over the last several months developing a plan that is designed to ensure the financial stability for its 3,774 students.
White noted the value the programs have in the college’s tradition, but said “sadly, after much thought and extensive analysis, we have made the determination that we can no longer afford to maintain them.”