GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - A North Carolina college has announced it will discontinue nearly half of its academic majors and cut 36 positions in hopes of securing its future.
After a review that began in September, Guilford College interim president Carol Moore said she will recommend to trustees that the private Quaker college in Greensboro phase out 19 of its 42 academic majors, the News & Record of Greensboro reports. The changes won’t become official until after a trustees’ vote in early 2021 that will give time for tenured professors slated to be laid off to appeal their dismissals.
The cuts were announced on Friday.
Guilford plans to cut 27 faculty positions, or 30% of its full-time faculty, after the spring semester, including laying off 16 tenured professors and five visiting professors. Four professors are scheduled to retire, and two more have said they plan to resign.
Most of the majors targeted for the cut are humanities programs, including history, philosophy, religious studies and three foreign languages. Political science, chemistry and math also will no longer be Guilford majors.
The college said its enrollment of 1,429 students is nearly half its total from a decade ago. Enrollment is down 7% from last fall partly because of the pandemic.
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