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Eliminating college degrees is a new focus for state lawmakers who are seeking more control over the state budget and curriculum.
I fully expected to oppose the current push to merge or suspend degree programs with low enrollment. But as I watched the process unfold over the last year, it became clear this kind of culling was necessary.
I remain wary, though, of a second round of contraction involving career pay.
Earlier this week, the Indiana Commission for Higher Education gave final approval to changes for 1,000 programs. Some were merged, some will be monitored and about 210 degrees at seven public universities and colleges will be suspended or eliminated after current students finish their programs.
State officials emphasized that only 4% of 2024 graduates earned a degree in any of the degrees identified — which is about 4,000 students.
The process started in 2025 with a new state law using a three-year rolling average to identify degrees producing few graduates.
Institutions quickly identified 71 programs to voluntarily eliminate before a larger review began. Sixty-four of those 71 had no students. None.
After the latest reduction, about 1,200 degree programs remain. And, of course, Indiana has a host of private institutions that still might offer the options eliminated from public schools.
The more I learned, I’m shocked some of these degrees existed — even if in name only.
But a second ground of possible cuts is pushing the envelope.
Lawmakers in February passed another measure that directs CHE staff to review programs whose graduates earn median wages below the average earnings of a high school graduate in Indiana — ranging roughly from $24,000 to $35,000 — and determine by Dec. 1 whether those programs should continue, be restructured or
be consolidated.
The idea flows from a push by President Donald Trump, whose administration has capped federal loans for graduate degrees deemed non-professional, targeting programs with low-income outcomes to reduce debt. Some areas of study that might be hit include education, nursing and social work. Programs seen as having lower salary-to-debt ratios are now capped at $100,000 in federal loans.
Some are worried that colleges will close programs in fine arts, humanities or social sciences.
Parents and students should absolutely be made explicitly aware if they are taking a career path with a lower salary expectation. But limiting the options altogether smacks of big government to me.
God knows I didn’t go into journalism to make money. It was more of a calling to me, and an adequate paycheck was a bonus.
My first salary out of college in 1995 was $17,000. That salary in today’s dollars is about $36,800, which cuts close to the arbitrary line legislators have set.
I have made an amazing living doing something I love, and I would have hated for that choice to be taken away from me.
Overall, these changes seem to be about directing students to jobs state officials need or want to be filled instead of what will make a student happy.•
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Kelly is editor-in-chief of the Indiana Capital Chronicle and a regular panelist on WFYI-TV’s Indiana Week in Review. Send comments to [email protected].
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