by Chelsea Johnson

The recession continues to affect higher education.  Potential college students are changing their plans in order to be able to afford college from taking a year off to work, working while in school, to just plain borrowing more. Unfortunately, college students are getting used to saying an empathetic goodbye to friends who can’t afford the next semester.

Not only are college students struggling to come up with tuition money to stay in school, but schools are having an increasingly difficult time managing themselves and remaining financially sound. According to US News & World Report, on average, college endowments fell 2.7 percent in 2007-2008 fiscal year. They continued to lose a whopping 22.5 percent in the five months between June 2008 and December 2008.

The University System of Georgia budget cuts make this situation feel more real than ever. The $300 million budget cut affects 35 schools, including Kennesaw State, Georgia State, Columbus State University, Georgia Tech, and the University of Georgia.

In order to stay in the black, Kennesaw is eliminating their Department of Education Leadership. Current education majors will be forced to continue their majors at another institution. Spelman College purged its Department of Education last year which caused freshman and sophomore Education majors to change concentrations or colleges. The faze-out of the department allowed juniors and seniors the ability to finish their majors. Hopefully, education departments will cease being the first areas to cut, as it is important to consider the possible lasting impacts on the future of our country.

We can expect significant job losses as a result of these cuts. Let us recall Clark Atlanta University’s attempt to increase its bottom line last February. Classes were cancelled for several days due to the mass firing of over 100 workers including 70 professors campus-wide. It seems that CAU has bounced back and is thriving after these cuts; let us hope that The University System of Georgia also continues to be able to serve its students and the community well.