Cleveland State University – an employer, landowner, and educator of thousands of Northeast Ohio workers – needs to make major changes to remain relevant.
A new report from the accounting and consulting firm Ernst & Young recommends sweeping changes, including cutting faculty and staff and eliminating academic programs.
If the university does nothing, the consultants said, it would spend all of its $147 million in reserves over the next five years as it faces a projected $40 million budget gap.
But President Laura Bloomberg hasn’t been sitting back. This spring, the university began making adjustments, including offering faculty buyouts.
In an interview with Bloomberg and three members of her cabinet on May 22, Bloomberg told Signal Cleveland she believes the university has been transparent and proactive by sharing the details of the financial challenges and proposals.
The native Minnesotan isn’t a fan of sugarcoating. She knows this will be tough.
“I think it’s helpful to be sincere, transparent, to understand that this hurts to downsize,” she said.
Cleveland State’s biggest savings could come from cuts to faculty, staff
EY said the biggest savings – about $10.1 million – could come by cutting faculty members. An additional $750,000 could be saved with staff reductions.
University officials declined to say how many employees plan to take the buyouts so far, citing the June deadline. Bloomberg said the acceptance offers are going “well” – with a caveat.
“Are we happy to see people who have had deep commitment to this institution leave us? No,” she said. “But the opportunity to have control over your destiny in that way, and choose when you leave, is a good thing.”
Officials hope there’s enough interest in buyouts that the university won’t have to resort to layoffs.
EY consultants said that if not enough staff take voluntary buyouts, the university could cut part-time, lecturer, and eventually tenure-track faculty members.
What does this mean for Cleveland State students?
The report also suggested “strategic” program closures.
Cleveland State already started this process, planning to cut more than 40 programs, according to recent reporting from The Cleveland Stater. That list includes four-year degrees in areas such as anthropology, sports management and Spanish. Current students will be able to finish out those degrees.
“When we are in an environment where we see these massive [enrollment] declines, we need to be more responsive,” Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Nigamanth Sridhar told Signal Cleveland.
Sridhar and faculty spent the past 18 months overhauling the core curriculum. New students enrolling next fall will be the first to take those courses in totality.
“Students that will come in in fall ‘25 will have a perfectly strong complement of courses that they will need to take to move towards graduation, and they shouldn’t see a negative impact,” he said.
Net enrollment growth “unlikely” at Cleveland State
Universities in Northeast Ohio and across the state continue to face an enrollment crisis. It’s been triggered by a declining number of high school graduates and changing attitudes around higher education.
EY’s consultants laid out Cleveland State’s enrollment predicament. Enrollment growth is “unlikely under the current market conditions.”
The report talks a lot about “right-sizing” the institution – 44 times, in fact. In non-consultant lingo, Cleveland State uses this term to mean adjusting from the university’s historical footprint to its current size and financial situation.
Cleveland State enrolled nearly 20,000 students in 1980. By last fall, enrollment had shrunk to 14,175 – about a 29% drop.
Janet Stimple, interim vice president for Enrollment Management and Student Success, said she doesn’t expect to see “a lot of growth” in upcoming first-year classes. Officials want to keep pursuing online programs and enrolling international students, too. These areas have been successful for the university in recent years.
But, she added, there’s another metric to track.
“Growth, right now for us, is to maintain our market share,” she said. “So, it’s not growth, [but] it’s keeping from falling lower.”
What’s next for Cleveland State
EY’s 144-page report touches seemingly every inch of the university. The report makes suggestions for streamlining advising services, strengthening relationships with local employers, and gathering community members’ views on the university’s athletic programs.
It’s a lot to process.
President Bloomberg said it was “eye-opening in a motivating way” to see how the university stacks up against its peers in terms of access and affordability.
The university’s about on par with its competitors in terms of net tuition prices for full-time students ($11,800 at Cleveland State compared to $11,700) and the median amount of debt students leave with ($21,800 to $22,800).
“If, or as, we get smaller, we can aspire to a greater level of excellence,” she said.
And though Provost Sridhar was part of the committee working with EY throughout the process, he said he was still taken aback to see that Cleveland State already is spending less per student than other colleges.
Now, the Cleveland State community must process these findings as a key summer for the institution’s future begins.
Read the report in its entirety below.
