From further budget cuts at West Virginia University to a loan cancellation announcement from the U.S. Department of Education, here are the top-line figures from some of our biggest stories of the week.
By the numbers
14
The number of academic programs the State University of New York at Potsdam plans to eliminate over the next few years to counter a $9 million budget hole. The university’s president unveiled the programming cuts Tuesday and warned that SUNY Potsdam will also need to eliminate some faculty positions.
$37M
The value of student loans the U.S. Department of Education said Wednesday it would clear for certain borrowers who attended the University of Phoenix. The agency alleged that the for-profit college misled the borrowers through a deceptive advertisement campaign that ran between 2012 and 2014.
$800K
The maximum amount West Virginia University must cut its library personnel budget, per recommendations from the provost’s office. Affected staff will be notified in December if they're among those terminated.
$12B
The amount of state funding historically Black land-grant colleges have lost out on over the past few decades, according to the Education Department. The agency found the largest funding deficits were in Tennessee and North Carolina, where HBCUs in each state should have received more than $2 billion.
1
The number of institutions that dropped out of the top 10 in this year’s college rankings from U.S. News & World Report. Despite methodology changes, the upper rankings hardly budged compared to last year — though University of Chicago slid to 12th place and Brown University climbed into the top 10, at No. 9.
