Universities across the United States have faced lower enrollment over the years, which is true for East Carolina University and other schools in the UNC System.
According to the UNC system census data, ECU’s enrollment has been on a decline. In the spring of 2016, ECU had a total enrollment of 20,404. Enrollment peaked in the fall 2017 and steadily declined to 18,321 in spring 2025, where it currently sits. Art and humanities programs have been feeling the weight of these effects.
Foreign Languages and Literatures is one program that has been seeing a decline. According to the ECU website, the department’s vision is to “develop cultural competence by learning to communicate effectively in another language.”
The foreign languages and literature major came from a consolidation in 2015. David Smith, the department chair of foreign languages and literature, said this decision was an administrative recommendation and that having two programs fall under the umbrella of foreign languages and literature would be beneficial. These programs would later become concentrations within the major of foreign languages and literatures. Smith said universities across the country are facing this problem because of two reasons.
First, Smith said, was the inevitable approach of an enrollment cliff. “We’ll soon have fewer 18-year-olds than we’ve had in decades,” said Smith. Smith said that the economic recession from 2008-2009 affected birth rates, which meant fewer children were born. Now, those effects are starting to impact higher education.
Second, Smith said fewer 18-year-olds want to go to college. Although Smith does not know why he said the cost of attending could play a part. “I suspect, one, is the economy that has not been doing really well over the past couple of years.” Smith also said that there is an emphasis on community college and trade schools. Fewer 18-year-olds want to take on large debt and start making money early.
ECU’s School of Art & Design has stayed relatively the same size since 2016. That spring, undergraduate enrollment of new students was 420, but as of spring 2025, it sits at 423. Enrollment in Art & Design in fall 2020 was 550 but has declined ever since.
Daniel Kariko, assistant director and undergraduate programs coordinator for the School of Art and Design, said that the department is waiting for the enrollment cliff to affect enrollment. With the impending enrollment decline, Kariko oversees the department’s recruitment effort.
“Last year, I interacted with close to or around 460 high school students,” said Kariko. Along with visiting high schools in eastern North Carolina, the department hosts a Scholastic Art & Awards Exhibition. The exhibition receives art submissions from students and displays them in the Jenkins Fine Arts Center on ECU’s campus. Kariko says that having the exhibition helps recruit high school students to join the program after graduation.
Other majors have been consolidated or even discounted at ECU. Since spring 2016, the College of Arts and Science has consolidated 10 separate majors, the most of any college at the university. The College of Fine Arts and Communication is second, with a total of five majors being consolidated. Both the College of Education and the College of Health and Human Performance have discontinued three majors.
Along with some programs getting cut, discontinued or consolidated, one professor fears the professors are now at risk of losing their jobs. Eric Shouse, a professor in the School of Communication, is a faculty senate member at ECU and has voiced his concerns at faculty meetings.
“The tenure when I got here 20 years ago is not the tenure I have now,” said Shouse. Shouse noted that the UNC system has implemented a post-tenure review process every five years. He explains this as being up for tenure again, although in a less arduous process.
Shouse said that North Carolina’s university system is being run more like a business in more ways than one. Shouse said he received no raise during his most successful year as a professor. During this same year, ECU put in a new brick bike path. “Read the Harvard Business Review. What does it say? Pay your employees first,” said Shouse.
Although ECU faces lower enrollment rates, some select majors have not felt these effects. Many students go to college because it is a requirement for their careers, like dentistry or engineering. Enrollment declines could, in the future, lead to the end or the consolidation of additional programs at universities like ECU.