The Louisiana Board of Regents decided Wednesday to cut more than 100 under-enrolled academic programs from their university system.
The Baton Rouge Advocate has more:
Nearly 200 more academic programs will be consolidated or shaped into new programs, under the plan approved by the board that sets policy for the state's public colleges and universities. Southern University has the most degree programs being directly terminated, with 13 degrees lost, including its Spanish and French bachelor's degrees, the Regents determined.
Alongside other cuts at Grambling State University, no public historically black college in the state will offer a bachelor's degree in a foreign language once the programs are phased out. That adds to other statewide reductions in foreign language degree offerings the past two years.
"The consequences are dire," said Southern foreign languages professor Thomas Miller, who unsuccessfully argued, "We are in the process of turning the program around."
Since 2008, the Louisiana system has been subject to $310 million of budget cuts.
"The driving force behind this entire process was to save money," Mike Gargano, LSU System vice president of student and academic support, told the Advocate, "The false impression that this entire process creates is it somehow makes the campuses more efficient, more effective and will somehow create better management of finances."