Academic Program Array

 

Columbia College Chicago is undergoing an evaluation of its programmatic offerings in order to ensure continued alignment with the expectations of current and prospective students and families and employers and the broader economy. This process is ongoing, and a final decision will be made in early 2025. No changes would take place until Fall 2025, and any phaseout of programs would allow students in those programs to finish their studies.

Please find more information below. If you have additional questions regarding a specific program, please contact provost@colum.edu.

Recent Messages

  • Columbia's Program Updates (9.11.24)

    Dear Columbia College Chicago Faculty and Staff, 

    This week we started a series of steps to ensure Columbia College Chicago, which enters its 135th year in 2025, continues to be a destination for creatives who seek to make an impact in today’s world.

    Like many private institutions, we have been faced with challenges which have impacted our enrollment and increased operational costs, challenges we urgently need to address to ensure the continuing health of the college. To address them, we must focus on those elements that distinguish us in the marketplace: educational programming that is driven by our community’s understanding and appreciation of the value of creatives and creative thinking, and our commitment to preparing creatives to impact the world through their creative careers. Our business model must reflect what we value, but also reflect our appreciation that keeping our education affordable furthers our commitment to being a broadly inclusive college for students from a wide variety of backgrounds.

    The Challenge

    When we admit students to a program of study, we promise to deliver the courses required for them to complete their degree. The delivery of each major program comes with an associated minimum instructional cost that includes the salaries of our instructional staff; equipment, lab and specialized staff support; Core educational costs; and vital academic and student support services, such as academic advisors, tutors, our Library and Registrar, Dean of Students, disability services, wellness and a host of other support elements. The minimum instructional costs increase with the number of credits associated with the program and complexity of the program elements, including prerequisite requirements and the number of electives.

    For a program to be economically viable, there must be a minimum number of students enrolled in the program so that the tuition collected pays for the minimum costs of delivering the program. For a program to be healthy, there needs to be financial resources that allow for innovation and reinvestment.

    The number of programs we offer in our program array reflects a time when we had many more students. Now, the majority of our programs have a total enrollment – across all four years – of fewer than 50 students, and cost more to deliver than we collect in tuition. Even those programs with more robust enrollment are often designed with complicated pathways that cost more to deliver than we collect in tuition. This is not a sustainable educational model, and it does not permit innovation: our efforts to continue to fund our current array of 58 undergraduate programs has stretched us thin.

    This is a challenge we must face together as a college. We have in the past few years tried different strategies: growing our student body, increasing revenue through our tuition and development strategies, and lowering both administrative and instructional costs through efficiencies. Those strategies have helped – and we will continue to pursue them – but more needs to be done; it is time for a comprehensive reset of our academic programming. Together, we need to find the right number and mix of programs that allows us to thrive. As was noted in the recent message about our enrollment:

    To ensure creatives from across our country (and internationally) have the opportunity to seriously consider our college for their education, we must ensure our creative-focused program offering continues to align with the expectations and needs of students, families, and industry.

    Our Next Steps

    Our review of our programs has identified a number of discrete programs that are costly to deliver, and our external consultants have recommended that we sunset those programs. In addition, they recommend closing some smaller discrete programs that are not closely aligned with our main creative focus. Fulfilling our promise to faculty at the beginning of the summer, we have presented both the consultants’ recommendations and our immediate reaction to them. Our intent is to feed those recommendations into a much larger transformational mandate: a reimagined program array that is a sustainable mix of programs, promoting growth, centering student success, and meeting students’ interests and expectations around costs and outcomes.

    Reducing the number of programs to a sustainable number will mean phasing out some programs and developing new programs that combine key disciplinary elements, while maintaining our distinctiveness and better supporting all CCC students in achieving their creative and professional goals.

    What Will This Mean For Students?

    For students currently enrolled in our programs and the faculty who teach in them, nothing will immediately change. Currently, no action has been taken to terminate a program, other than three programs already in the process of being phased out. All programs continue until the recommendations of the faculty are reviewed by the provost later this fall.  

    For many programs, we anticipate that much current content will be available in a differently configured program. Current students will be offered the opportunity to transition to new and our adjacent program (in the same way they were offered the opportunity to transition to the improved Core Curriculum) to complete their studies. For students continuing in existing programs, we will develop completion plans that supports them through 2028 (current freshmen, sophomores and juniors). For the three programs that are already being phased out, Acoustics, Documentary, and Television Writing and Business, we will continue to deliver those programs to students enrolled in those programs through 2027.

    Following an expedited timeline, a new program framework will be developed this fall, and in spring we will be able to announce new programs being made available beginning fall 2025.

    Meeting The Challenge

    Since its founding in 1890, Columbia College Chicago has charted a new course several times, transitioning from an oratory school to a comprehensive liberal arts college with a vibrant creatives’ curriculum, pivoting to incorporate emerging creative practices, and shifting away from disciplines rendered obsolete by cultural or technological advancements.

    Those previous transformational achievements give us the confidence to believe that, working together, Columbia College can successfully navigate this moment, and continue our mission of preparing creatives for success for many decades to come. We look forward to meeting the challenge with you.

    Jerry Tarrer

    Interim President

    Marcella David

    Senior Vice President and Provost 

  • A Message To Students About Program Changes (9.18.24)

    Dear Columbia College Chicago Students,

    Please view this important video message from Interim President Jerry Tarrer regarding your questions about the college’s program array evaluation. You can view our FAQs page for more information as well.

    Sincerely,

    Jerry Tarrer

    Interim President

     

Academic Array Presentation

Click here to view Provost Marcella David’s presentation on academic program array updates.

FAQs

  • Why is the college changing its majors and programs array?
    • Columbia College Chicago is undergoing an evaluation of its programmatic offerings in order to ensure continued alignment with the expectations of current and prospective students, families, employers, and the broader economy.
    • These proactive steps are designed to make Columbia even more attractive to young creatives and to help drive their post-graduation success.
    • Final program decisions will be announced in early 2025. The college will work with students in impacted programs to ensure a degree completion path for all students.
    • Our goal is to create a sustainable mix of programs that promotes growth, centers around student success, and meets students’ interests and expectations around costs and outcomes. We currently offer too many programs with a complicated pathway to complete a degree. De-cluttering program pathways will reduce costs and improve student retention.
    • The program array we currently offer as a college costs significantly more to deliver than we collect in tuition revenue. We must reduce the number of programs to eliminate these losses. This charge gives us the opportunity to reimagine programs and realign them to market, expertise and distinctiveness.
    • The reduction also includes faculty instructional costs and is a component of our efforts to align the costs of a Columbia education with our students.
  • Is my program being phased out and/or is there a list of other programs under consideration for consolidation?
    • The final program updates and consolidations are still under review. Besides the three programs already in the process of winding down – the BS in acoustics, the Documentary BA, and the Television Writing and Business BFA – the Provost is recommending the college phase out the following programs:
      • Environmental and Sustainability Studies
      • Cultural Studies
      • MFA in Fine Arts
      • MFA in Photography
      • MFA and MA in Theatre Graduate Programs
      • BA in American Sign Language-English Interpretation
      • BA in Art History
      • BA in Creative Writing
      • Media for Social Impact
    • Additionally, the Provost recommends the college explore the following combinations of programs:
      • BFA and BA in Dance
      • BA and BS in Programming 
      • Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations, Social Media
      • Game Art, Animation, Game Design, Programming
      • Graphic Design and User Experience/Interaction Design
      • Journalism and Photojournalism
      • Theatre Design and Production (Writing, Directing, Stage Management)
      • Theatre and Dance Performance and Movement (Acting, Musical Theatre, Dance)
      • Arts/Entertainment Management and Music Business
      • Music Composition, Recording, Performance, and Business
    • The Provost also suggests the following programs be reviewed to achieve efficiency and foster further growth: Dance BA, Music Tech BS, Film and Television, Marketing, Advertising, PR and Comedy Writing and Performance.
  • If so, what is my pathway to graduate?
    • No decisions have been made yet, and a program’s inclusion on the list does not mean it will be phased out.
    • If they are in a program identified to be phased out, students will be offered the opportunity to transition to any new program (in the same way they were offered the opportunity to transition to the new Core Curriculum). For any program that is terminated where there is no substitute available, we will develop a completion plan which covers students currently enrolled in any such program, allowing current freshmen to complete their program.
    • If a student is impacted by a program update or consolidation, the student will receive communication from the college directly notifying the individual of this change, the path forward and who to contact directly with questions.
  • What are the proposed overall cost savings?
    • This is first and foremost about positioning Columbia and its students for a successful future in which our programs align with the needs of thriving creative industries and beyond. Phasing out and consolidating the college’s underperforming program array to approximately 40 programs would provide significant cost savings in order to help the college return to financial health. We are still confirming which programs are being impacted, therefore, we are unable to share a final number at this time.
  • How many students and faculty will be impacted?
    • The current list of program recommendations to be phased out represents 312 enrolled students, out of a total enrollment of 5,600. The exact impact on faculty will not be determined until recommendations are finalized (many faculty teach in different programs, for instance)

     

  • What is the process of determining if a program will be phased out or consolidated?
      • The process is a two-pronged approach in which the college will review recommendations from a third-party consultant and an internal process involving faculty to finalize a program array that is aligned with demand, the competitive landscape, financial performance and expense reduction opportunities.
      • Please see the timeline for more detailed information.
  • How will I be notified?
    • If a student is impacted by a program being phased out or consolidation, the student will receive communication from the college directly notifying the individual of this change, the path forward and who to contact directly with questions.
  • What will happen to faculty teaching the current program?
    • It is too soon to determine faculty impact. The exact impact on faculty will not be determined until recommendations are finalized (many faculty teach in different programs, for instance).
  • What is the timeline?
    • No changes will go into effect until Fall 2025, and are expected to be announced in early 2025.
      • Summer 2024 –
        • The college led an assessment by the Kaufman Hall consulting group, a project supported by Columbia data experts and an ad hoc steering committee to analyze and make recommendations on program array.
        • Program array modeling was conducted based on revised short-term and long-term enrollment projections, informed by the Kaufman Hall consulting group and an analysis by EAB (Education Technology, Services and Research) reviewing national factors impacting student enrollment
      • Fall 2024 –
        • September:
          • The Provost hosted a faculty town hall to announce and share program array findings on September 11.
          • The Provost will meet with School Directors and their teams to discuss these new potential curricular directions, with a deadline of the end of September for the schools to report out tentative program array frameworks.
          • Discussions with school leadership about potential new curricular directions, considering the KH and provost recommendations on opportunities for alignment and collaboration across schools.
        • October:
          • School-level working groups will then develop new school-level program arrays, which will be formally delivered to school curriculum committees at the end of October.
          • This will build on the tentative framework to identify new disciplinary pathways that will continue to be shaped by principles and program models to ensure efficiency.
        • November:
          • School curriculum committees will share a reimagined school program array with All-College Curriculum Committee in early November.
          • Nov. 5: All-College Curriculum Committee to meet on Election Day (no classes) for a collaborative cross-disciplinary discussion of proposed school program arrays.
      • Moving forward, a final decision will be presented to faculty and staff by early 2025.