JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville University students are expressing frustration over the school’s decision to cut fine arts programs and lay off nearly 40 faculty members in an effort to focus more on majors like nursing, engineering, and computer science.
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“As a premier private, comprehensive university, we are in the business of preparing tomorrow’s leaders for success in their chosen fields. It is our responsibility to continually evaluate how best to achieve that mission by focusing our resources at the intersection of student demand and real-world opportunity,” JU President Tim Cost said one day before the announcement was made public.
JU added that it expects to reduce controllable expenses by 10% across all of its operations by Fall 2025.
However, students like Savannah Ivey, who is a music tech major, said the recent announcement has left her and her classmates feeling “distraught, disappointed, a little confused, and angry.”
She also said that when students first received the email on Monday night about the Tuesday morning meetings, which was “very ambiguous,” they thought it was a spam email.
“There’s a lot of crying, there’s a lot of outrage,” Ivey explained. “We’re already very tight-knit, so we’ve all just been supporting each other and being there for each other.”
When students tried to rally and get together to attend the meetings, Ivey says they were “turned away” and locks were changed at Terry Concert Hall.
“They turned away faculty, like the head of the music department and the music staff, away from these meetings and wouldn’t tell people what that was about,” she said. “It’s very upsetting that not everyone is getting the same information; there have been about three meetings today in different locations, we’ve all been separated and everyone is being told something different.”
Ivey says she is already thinking about transferring to a different university after calling the decision to cut her major a “big slap in the face.”
“I don’t see myself staying at the university,” she said. “It’s to the extent where I performed at President Cost’s home for his holiday party in December and now he’s cutting my program. It feels like a slap in the face, it does.”
She also explained how the timing of the decision affects her ability to transfer to a school that offers the major she’s interested in.
“It is now April, usually transfer applications open in fall, and decisions are sent out by March at the latest,” Ivey said. “There’s not a lot that we can do with transferring, and I don’t think [President Cost] realizes that we have to re-audition for any of these BFA programs or music programs.”
Jacksonville University President Tim Cost, who said he’s been associated with the school for nearly 50 years, said the school has around 4,200 students, and about 20 will be impacted by the recent cuts.
“I know what things like music and theater mean to us,” he said. “It’s a very challenging environment, and there are many universities that offer it, but it’s not the right fit for us to do, so we’re going to make sure all of them can get to graduation, but we won’t continue the programs after they graduate.”
He also said that each impacted student will be offered a full-tuition scholarship for the length of their time at JU.
“We’ve put special teams together, with everything from the Registrar’s Office, Student Affairs, Financial Planning, professionals, and we’ll say, ‘You don’t have to transfer, you can still make your way to the pathway you want to make it. And perhaps rather than a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Music Therapy, it’s a Bachelor of Arts.”
He continued, “We’re not asking people who like to play the piano to go become engineers and nurses.”
Cost added that 38 faculty members were notified that they will be fired, and that the school has offered “full severance packages” and a full set of “wraparound services.”
According to JU, the following majors will be cut:
Brooks College
• Respiratory Care BS Completion major
• CSD Minor
• Play Therapy Certificate
Davis College
• Engineering Management major
• FinTech major
• Healthcare Administration major
• MBA Tracks in FinTech, Health Informatics, Healthcare Management and Portfolio Management
• Business Foundations Certificate
• Business Law Certificate
• Executive Thought Leadership Certificate
• FinTech Certificate
Legacy College of Arts & Sciences
• Education for Instruction Tracks in Community and ESOL
• Data Science major and minor
• Social Sciences major
• Marine Science Oceanography Track
Linda Berry Stein College of Fine Arts and Humanities
• Art History Concentration in Visual Arts
• Glass Concentration in Visual Arts
• Music major (Jazz & Commercial Music, Music Education, Music Technology, Music Therapy, Music Performance, Musical Theatre, and Music Composition)
• Philosophy major
• Theatre major and minor
• World Languages major and minor
• MFA in Visual Arts
As of May 5, the new Linda Berry Stein College of Arts and Sciences will house combined disciplines from the Linda Berry Stein College of Fine Arts & Humanities and the legacy College of Arts and Sciences, the Jacksonville Daily Record reports.
Also, JU will continue to offer 37 majors and minors deemed most in demand while continuing to offer 15 graduate programs at the master’s and doctoral levels in fields like mental health counseling, marine science, and speech-language pathology.
Kim Banks, JU’s chief financial officer, said, “This is a critical moment for the hundreds of universities like ours nationwide to focus and prioritize their academic offerings, serve their core constituents, and create long-term financial sustainability. The higher education industry nationwide is being asked to re-envision its financial model. We are ready to meet this new landscape.”
News4JAX’s full conversation with Jacksonville University President Tim Cost can be watched below.
Following the interview, News4JAX received this response from Jacksonville University on what it would like to say to alumni that have funded and supported the arts programs.
President Tim Cost has shared today’s announcement directly with alumni and donors, and he has spoken with several of them today.
The University values their support and partnership, and we look forward to continuing that relationship as we move forward with the new Stein College of Arts & Sciences, which will continue to offer programs like dance, visual arts, film, animation, game design, and more within the School of Fine Arts & Humanities.
Spokesperson for Jacksonville University