The College of Idaho is eliminating three academic programs and laying off 10 employees as part of a comprehensive restructuring aimed at aligning resources with student demand and enrollment trends.The private liberal arts coll ege announced it will cut theater, communication arts, and philosophy majors all programs with low enrollment numbers. The decision affects six teaching faculty members and four non-teaching staff positions."The programs that we made the choice to eliminate this past week were ones that didn't meet that, and it's really around the number of undergrads enrolled in those programs," said Doug Brigham, the college's CEO. WATCH: The College of Idaho is cutting three majors and 10 jobs, sparking pushback from alumni College of Idaho Cuts Three Majors, Lays Off 10 Employees in Academic RestructuringThe cuts come after more than a year of review by a campus-wide task force examining student preferences and enrollment patterns. The same group developed a new curriculum called "Do More in 4," allowing students to complete undergraduate degrees in three years and master's degrees in the fourth year."So we think that's really innovative, but part of that was how do we reposition our resources on our campus to move from maybe some of the historical programs to where the students are wanting to attend more, and so we took a hard look," Brigham said.Current students enrolled in the eliminated majors will still be able to complete their degrees. The college has committed to teaching required courses and maintaining existing scholarships related to debate or theater programs."They'll be able to continue their major if that's what they're going to graduate in. So we have an obligation to teach out courses that they need, so that won't change. If they had scholarships related to debate or theater, they'll continue to have all of those," Brigham said.The decision has drawn criticism from some alumni, particularly graduates of the communications and debate programs. Laurel Weiss Christensen, a College of Idaho communications graduate, expressed disappointment with the cuts."I believe that the college's leadership is torn between this kind of growth machine mindset and the ability to be a good liberal arts college," Christensen said.She specifically criticized eliminating the communications program and its debate coach position."I'm especially frustrated by the communications program being cut. I think that, for one, that's a pretty core thing in a functioning society to have people who can communicate well," Christensen said.While cutting three programs, the college is adding six new majors: finance, biochemistry, criminology, data science, accounting, and exercise science. Brigham said the goal is preparing students for evolving job markets while maintaining liberal arts foundations."We want to graduate students that are ready for careers, but we also think it's important that they have a common core, and that common core for us is the liberal arts, where you're going to have a wide, broad education," Brigham said.The college says laid-off staff will continue receiving pay through their existing contracts as they transition to new roles.For Canyon County happenings, news, and more join our Facebook Group: 2C Neighborhood News - Nampa, Caldwell, MiddletonThis story was initially reported by a journalist and has been, in part, converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy. ...read more read less