South Carolina State University just terminated eight academic programs that couldn't draw enough students to justify their existence — the latest sign that the higher education bubble is finally leaking air, and the market is correcting what decades of taxpayer subsidies and administrative bloat created.
A board member told WIS that the cut programs averaged roughly eight student registrations per year, falling below the minimums set by the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education. The axed programs: Business Education, Professional Land Surveying, Art Education, Social Studies Education, Jr. High/Middle School Education, Mathematics, Technology Teacher Education (Industrial), and Mechanical Engineering Technology. Students currently enrolled can still finish their degrees or transfer.
This is what a market correction looks like. For years, universities inflated program offerings and administrative payrolls on the backs of federal loan dollars and state subsidies. The South Carolina Commission on Higher Education set a floor — and SC State's programs couldn't meet it. Eight students a year is not a program; it's a seminar with a budget line.
WIS framed the cuts straightforwardly as an enrollment-driven decision. The Baton Rouge Advocate, covering a different story entirely, offered an unintentional counterpoint: McNeese State University in Louisiana reported its third straight year of enrollment growth, up 1.6% to 6,663 students, with retention climbing to 71% among first-time freshmen. McNeese President Mike Reese credited faculty and staff who "worked hard to bring new students to the campus." Senior Vice President Kedrick Nicholas pointed to "student support services" producing results.
What's notable is what McNeese actually invested in: a First-Year Experience program with freshman orientation, a dedicated freshman office, peer mentoring for 300 freshmen, and tutoring centers in math, science, and writing. The school's Center for Learning and Student Success logged over 3,000 student visits last year. That is: basic academic support, not DEI bureaucracy or administrative sinecures.
The contrast writes itself. One institution let programs wither to single-digit enrollment — programs that presumably carried full faculty lines and overhead — while another grew by putting resources into actual instruction and student retention. SC State's cuts target education and technical programs, exactly the kinds of majors that were expanded during the higher ed build-out, often with political pressure to boost degree counts regardless of demand.
Students already in the terminated SC State programs will be able to complete them or transfer. That's the right call. But the larger question remains: how many other universities are sitting on similarly hollow programs, sustained by tuition dollars from students recruited to fill seats rather than to learn something the market values?
The higher ed establishment sold America on the idea that every campus needs every program. The bill is coming due.
