USIU Announces Major Cutbacks
United States International University said Friday that it will discontinue all 12 of its NCAA Division I athletic programs, eight to 10 academic majors, and cut back on staff as part of a reorganization plan to stave off bankruptcy.
The men’s basketball team will complete its schedule for the season, but other programs scheduled to begin in January, including baseball, softball and tennis, will be canceled, according to a statement from the university.
Ted Vallas, chairman of the board of trustees, said the athletic programs and performing arts programs are being targeted because they are “the most capital-intensive.”
On Friday, administrators had not decided which of the more than 100 majors offered will be canceled, said Anne Slavicek, spokeswoman for USIU. But majors with the fewest number of students will probably be targeted.
“We have a lot of very specific degree programs,” she said. “Some with three or four students in them. . . . Like the degree in theatre arts management, I don’t think anyone is in it right now.”
USIU President Kenneth McKlennan said during a three-hour meeting Friday with the university’s board of trustees that students in canceled majors will be encouraged to enroll in similar programs, and that classes in the canceled majors will still be available, the statement said.
“No one scheduled to graduate with a degree in June will be affected,” the statement said, adding that about 1% of the university’s 1,900 students will be affected by the changes.
“He mentioned the management information systems and accounting as examples,” Slavicek said. “Someone in accounting might switch to business administration.”
Slavicek said she expects a list of canceled majors in about a week.
Plans to cut back on extracurricular programs also are not final, Slavicek said. Performances by the university’s orchestra are likely to be canceled because it is expensive to rent halls, but music classes will probably still be held.
About 55 of the university’s 314 full-time faculty and staff members will be asked to take salary cuts and increase their workloads, the statement said. Some positions will be eliminated.
The university filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week and is attempting to solve what is basically a cash-flow crisis, Vallas said.
The university is about $16 million in debt, but is holding a $7-million note from the sale of its TV station (Channel 51), and is expecting about $50 million from the pending sale of portions of a campus in London, after which “we should be in very good shape,” he said.
“The real problem is there was a lot of expansion that had taken place,” Vallas said. “There was a lot of fat built up, which can happen in any business.”
A deal in which a Japanese company would have brought more capital to the university is still pending, he said.
“I’m somewhat of an optimist,” he said. “In the next three months, we should have a lot of answers. But by no means is the university in danger of failing.”
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