With eye on eliminating deficit, CUA grapples with proposed changes to academic programs

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 21, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Administrators, faculty, and students at The Catholic University of America (CUA) are in the throes of dealing with difficult decisions to eliminate a $30 million structural deficit revealed last month by the institution’s president, Peter Kilpatrick. 

During emotional meetings with faculty and students last week, CUA Provost Aaron Dominguez discussed a proposal, yet to be approved by the institution’s board of trustees, that among other changes could potentially close the university’s Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art, and move that school’s existing academic programs into other schools of the university.  

The proposal also calls for CUA’s National Catholic School of Social Service (NCSSS) to be merged into the Conwar School of Nursing.  Under the proposal, the deans of both the Rome School and NCSSS would remain on faculty but not in their capacity as deans. 

Dominguez told students Jan. 16 that if approved, the proposal to close the Rome School would take place at the end of the spring 2025 semester. In an email sent to faculty, staff, students, and parents on Jan. 17, Dominguez specified that under the proposal, the music and drama departments would be merged into the School of Arts and Sciences, while the art department will be moved to the School of Architecture and Planning.

Dominguez discussed the proposal in separate meetings with faculty members and students as part of the university’s protocol that dictates proposals of this nature go through a “consultative phase.”   

Proposal is ‘administration’s recommended course of action’ 

CUA spokeswoman Karna Lozoya explained that the proposed changes represent “the administration’s recommended course of action, but these must go through established consultation and approval processes” including by CUA’s Academic Senate and Board of Trustees, whose next meeting is scheduled for March.

There are currently 238 music, drama, and art students at CUA. Dr. Jacqueline Leary-Warsaw, the dean of the Rome School, is the wife of Michael Warsaw, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of EWTN Global Catholic Network, the parent company of CNA. 

Both Leary-Warsaw and Dominguez emphasized that all students would graduate with the degrees they applied for and enrolled in.

Several students expressed frustration and anxiety over the proposal to close the school, citing fear over their program’s potential loss of integrity and not having access to the same classes or quality of education.

“Us being merged, us potentially losing our identity as an art school is not really what we paid for, is not what we applied for, is not what we wanted to come to school for at Catholic University,” CUA student Christiane Ensala, 19, told CNA in an interview after the student meeting on Thursday.

“Personally, I don’t feel too panicked,” a doctoral student of vocal accompaniment at the Rome School who identified himself as Xiao told CNA. He explained that he had experienced a similar process at his previous graduate school where he obtained his master’s degree.

Responding to the anxiety of students and faculty at the prospect of changes to their programs, CUA Board Chairman Robert Neal told CNA in a phone interview that the university is “carefully assessing” as it undergoes its consultative process, “whether as we integrate these programs into other schools, we can retain the named school.”

Lozoya told CNA that the dialogue around the Rome School “continues to evolve” as the university works at “refining the initial proposal” as part of the consultative process.

Lozoya pointed to a similar situation several years ago where deliberations at CUA lead to the creation of the Rome School itself.

“During that time, initial proposals underwent significant modifications through consultation and dialogue,” she said, noting that an initial proposal for a “School of Music, Visual, and Performing Arts” eventually led to the creation of the Rome School.  

“Additionally, the original proposal to move media and communication studies was amended based on community input, showing how these processes can and do change substantially through consultation,” she added. 

In December, Kilpatrick had cited significant decline in enrollment as a primary contributor to the university’s deficit, as well as inflation, the pandemic, and the “poorly redesigned” federal aid (FAFSA) program.  

Although the university has seen an uptick in enrollment in the past three years, Kilpatrick noted that it is still not enough to counter the 15% enrollment decline it experienced from 2012 to 2021.  

Lozoya said the university “must reduce its operating budget by $30 million to ensure long-term financial sustainability.”

“This fiscal reality will necessitate significant structural changes across the institution,” she acknowledged, while noting that the “specific form of these changes continues to evolve through consultation.” 

Dominguez similarly told faculty during their meeting that while the proposal to close the performing arts school was “definitely precipitated by a financial situation,” the move is “not the solution that fixes all of our problems.” 

“The benefit of moving [the programs] into a larger college is that it’s got more staff,” the provost said during his meeting with students. He also noted that the School of Arts and Sciences has more resources for students.  

Dominguez declined to answer specific questions regarding staff eliminations communicated as effective during the meetings, changes to course offerings, and whether certain academic programs would also be cut, stating that a comprehensive plan regarding these details would not be announced until later in the semester.

“What is not on the table is not allowing you to finish your degrees; radically changing what’s going on in the Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art; firing tons of faculty; changing really what it is that you came here to do and why,” he told students.

“What we’re doing instead is trying to make that more viable,” he insisted, “more viable financially, and more excellent academically, now and in the future for the friends that come behind you for the next 20, 30 years.”  

“I want to reassure you that there’s nothing of your own education here that’s really going to be disrupted because of these changes,” Dominguez said.  

The consultative phase will continue with presentations to the Academic Senate and the university president, according to the faculty handbook. The board of trustees is expected to take up and vote on the changes in March. The result of that vote is expected to be effective at the end of the university’s current fiscal year.