We are witnessing the gutting of the humanities, arts, social sciences, identity-based studies, languages, and educator pipelines in plain sight.
A troubling national trend is accelerating in higher education: states are using “low enrollment,” “low value,” “workforce alignment,” and budget efficiency to eliminate academic programs. But if you look closely at the majors and programs that are being cut, the pattern is impossible to ignore.
These cuts are falling hardest on the very fields that help us understand the world, question power, preserve and understand culture, and prepare students for careers in teaching, counseling, healthcare, and public service.
In Ohio, Senate Bill 1 has already triggered nearly 90 program eliminations across public colleges and universities.
At the associate degree level, programs in human services, child development, public health, psychology, biological sciences and sustainable agriculture are being cut.
At the bachelor’s degree level, programs in Africana and African American studies, women’s and gender studies, philosophy, sociology, political science, history, geography, French, Spanish, chemistry, physics, mathematics, earth science, dance, music theory, composition and theory, disability studies, and a variety of education studies majors are being cut.
For students in Ohio, this means fewer pathways into college, careers, and civic life. It means students interested in teaching, public health, counseling, research, languages, or the arts may have to abandon those goals altogether or leave home to pursue their interests.
Ohio is sending a clear message: students deserve fewer choices and narrower opportunities.
In Indiana, public colleges and universities have moved to eliminate or suspend 580 programs under the banner of low enrollment and efficiency.
At the bachelor’s degree level, programs in chemical biology and biochemistry, health information management, computer graphics technology, social work, computer information systems technology, molecular life sciences, industrial engineering technology, American sign language, microbiology, mathematics with computer science, human development and family studies, engineering, architectural engineering technology, public affairs, philosophy, and art history are all being cut.
Despite their stated reasoning, this is nothing but a deliberate dismantling of pathways into healthcare, STEM, public service, communications, and the liberal arts.
Utah has passed a similar bill. While statewide data on programs isn’t easily accessible, the University of Utah moved to eliminate 81 academic programs under a state-directed reallocation plan. Programs being cut include chemistry, teaching, humanities programs, arts-related certificates and minors, and a range of graduate and interdisciplinary offerings. While framed as efficiency and reinvestment, the pattern is the same: programs tied to teaching, the arts, humanities, and the liberal arts are on the chopping block. For students, that means fewer pathways into education careers, fewer creative and cultural disciplines, and fewer opportunities to pursue fields that enrich civic life and critical thinking.
In Texas, the cuts have taken a more direct and ideological form. Rather than only eliminating degree programs, institutions have been forced to target curricula focused on cultural studies, gender and LGBTQ studies and diversity centered curriculum. The result is that 53% of Latino students, 13% of African American students, and nearly half of all female students, will no longer have the opportunity to see their histories, communities, and experiences reflected in the classroom. They will lose avenues for deeper academic exploration of cultures, identities, inequality, and democracy itself. This is more than curriculum change; it is an effort to narrow what can be taught, studied, researched, and written about, limiting how future generations of Texans understand themselves and one another.
What happens when states decide which knowledge matters? Students lose choices, communities lose voices, and public higher education loses its purpose.
Currently, 4 out of 5 students opt to stay in their home state to go to college; but now, they may have to seek their degree elsewhere. The students hit hardest will be those with the fewest options to transfer, relocate, or absorb disruption: first-generation students, low-income students, and students of color. From Ohio and Indiana to Utah and Texas, these policies are shrinking the humanities, arts, sciences, educator pipelines, and identity-based studies in favor of a narrower vision of college tied to politics and labor-market demands. This is neither modernization nor efficiency. Instead, it is a political narrowing of opportunity, inquiry, and who gets to see themselves or their interests reflected in the future of higher education. The real questions is whether your state and university will be next.
Wil Del Pilar serves as Ed Trust’s vice president of higher education policy and practice. In this role, he spearheads Ed Trust’s mission to highlight inequities and outline solutions in order to improve access, success, affordability, and completion in higher education for low-income students and students of color.
