Columbia College Chicago has laid off 20 full-time faculty members as part of planned cuts to academic programs, the downtown art school announced this week.
The layoffs are the latest in a series of cuts the school has made to programming and staffing in an attempt to plug the $38 million budget deficit. Seventy staffers were laid off in May 2024. In September, the school cut 18 “underperforming” majors.
The 20 faculty members, 18 of which are tenured, were a part of the schools of Audio and Music; Business and Entrepreneurship; Communication and Culture; Design; and Visual Arts.
School officials said many of the layoffs focused on staff that provided general education. The college will soon require students to make more classes within their majors or minors, the school said.
Tenured faculty members leaving Columbia will receive a year of pay and benefits while teaching-track faculty were offered six months of pay and benefits, school officials said.
In March, Shantay N. Bolton took over as president of the art-focused school. Bolton will replace Kwang-Wu Kim, who resigned last year following declining enrollment and a six-week strike. The school has seen enrollment drop from more than 11,000 in 2010 to less than 7,000 in 2022.