January Brings Job and Program Cuts

While December capped off a difficult year for higher education with roughly 300 jobs cut and dozens of programs eliminated, colleges made fewer cutbacks to start the year.

January still saw job cuts, but at a much lower rate than the prior month. Like last year, many institutions continue to be squeezed by a mix of federal and state funding pressures, declining enrollment, rising operating costs, and financial friction at even the wealthiest universities.

Here is a look at the latest round of job and program cuts to start 2026.

Santa Monica College

Facing a persistent budget deficit that has climbed to a projected $16.7 million, administrators plan to eliminate 70 jobs at the California community college, the Santa Monica Daily Press reported.

The announcement comes as officials have warned that the college could deplete its financial reserves due to a long-running budget deficit that they have struggled in recent years to rein in. Declining enrollment and recent changes to state funding also put pressure on the college’s finances.

“This decision weighs heavily on me,” superintendent and president Kathryn E. Jeffery wrote in a message to the community. “These are not just positions on a spreadsheet—they represent real people, colleagues who have dedicated themselves to our students and our mission.”

California College of the Arts

Set to close at the end of 2026–27 academic year, the private arts college laid off 28 employees last month, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The move came roughly a week after Vanderbilt University announced it was buying the Bay Area campus.

Of the 28 employees laid off in January, many reportedly worked in areas such as academic affairs, enrollment services, communications, student affairs, and the president’s office.

Vanderbilt bought the campus amid recent financial struggles for CCA and plans to open a San Francisco campus following the closure, continuing its national expansion beyond Nashville.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Trustees at the flagship campus pushed through a surprise resolution last month to shave $17 million in administrative costs, triggering expectations of layoffs, The News & Observer reported.

The newspaper reported that the last-minute resolution, introduced in a committee meeting, didn’t appear on the agenda for the meeting and was not available for public review prior to the meeting. Some members on the board were caught by surprise and they had little time to examine the proposal.

The full board ultimately approved the budget cuts despite process concerns with the vote. Chapel Hill officials have not specified exactly what the cuts approved last month will target, though UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts told the newspaper “layoffs are always a last resort.”

New Jersey City University

A looming merger between Kean University and New Jersey City University will result in some positions being eliminated, though exact numbers have not been released, the Jersey City Times reported.

An official at Kean, which is absorbing the financially challenged NJCU as part of the merger deal, told the newspaper that “a majority of NJCU faculty and staff are expected to be retained post-merger,” but some cuts are needed to “address a $25 million to $30 million budgetary gap.”

Kean also unveiled plans in December to drop nine degree programs and other offerings.

Pennsylvania Western University

PennWest officials plan to cut dozens of programs amid efforts to recalibrate academic offerings in order to better align with modern learning and workforce needs, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

Officials at the public university plan to axe at least six undergraduate degrees, four graduate programs and 34 minors. Another nine bachelor’s degree programs offered across PennWest’s three campuses are also under consideration and could be cut. However, despite the program cuts, officials told the newspaper that it does not have corresponding plans to lay off faculty and staff members.

Program cuts follow a recent round of furloughs at two PennWest campuses last fall.

University of Montana

Officials at the flagship campus have proposed terminating master’s degree programs in literature and economics and pausing minors in Chinese and Irish studies due to low enrollment, the Montana Free Press reported.

Faculty Senate and the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education must still review the proposal before the university winds down programs targeted for elimination. Faculty, students and alumni have pushed back on the plan; the Economics Department chair said the master’s degree targeted for elimination has maintained stable enrollment.

Officials declined to say how many employees would be affected by the proposed cuts.

Texas A&M University

While many program cuts in January were driven by finances, others were political in nature.

Texas A&M officials announced late last month that they were axing the Women’s and Gender Studies program, effective immediately, to comply with a system policy that restricts discussions of “race or gender ideology.”

Beyond the policy, which has also prompted Texas A&M to censor some of Plato’s writings in a philosophy course, officials noted that the program had struggled with low enrollment.

University of Pennsylvania

One of the nation’s wealthiest universities is enacting far-reaching budget cuts.

Officials at Penn—which has an endowment recently valued at $24.8 billion—recently asked units across campus to prepare to scale back expenditures by 4 percent in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported. Officials attributed the campus-wide budget cuts to a moment of “considerable uncertainty” for the Ivy League university, which has faced federal pressures from the Trump administration in recent months.

Penn is currently in a standoff with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which accused the university of defying a subpoena in an investigation into alleged antisemitism. The EEOC is seeking information on Jewish students and employees, which Penn has resisted providing due to concerns about the legality of the demand and exposing personal details.