Craig Douglas
Managing editor/online vertical products and research- Boston Business Journal
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Since its founding in 1906, Suffolk University has promoted itself as a diversified, one-stop-shop for college students hoping for a professional career in Greater Boston. Today its mission is much the same, although its aspiration to be all things to all students is getting a serious scrubbing.
Prompted by internal reviews of its operations as well as broader challenges bearing down on all of higher education, Suffolk is in consolidation mode. In the current fall semester, the college’s faculty headcount is down 15 percent on a year-over-year basis. Programs in computer science, environmental engineering, education and video game studies have been eliminated. Undergraduate enrollment is off roughly 3 percent, while first-year enrollment in Suffolk’s law school is down 13 percent.
Much of Suffolk’s reorganization, such as the elimination of some academic programs and the loss of jobs through attrition, has been proactive and strategic; a Suffolk spokesman said the college, under new leadership since 2012, has opted to shed less-popular and competitive academic programs and refocus resources on its core offerings in business and traditional liberal arts programs.
But other changes have come uninvited and reflect deeper, systemic problems plaguing hundreds of private colleges and universities throughout the United States. Those issues have been particularly pronounced in the Northeast, where the annual cost to attend a private four-year school, usually in the $40,000-to-$50,000 range, has proven an increasingly tough sell to students and their families since the recent recession.
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