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Christina Westman hoped to become a music therapist when she came to St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.
克里斯蒂娜·韦斯特曼来到明尼苏达州圣克劳德州立大学（St. Cloud State University）时，希望成为一名音乐治疗师。
But that became impossible when the college announced a plan to cut its music department along with 42 other study programs.
但当该学院宣布削减音乐系和其他42个学习项目的计划后，她这个想法便无法实现了。
The move is part of a wave of program cuts among small and large colleges in the United States.
这一举措是美国大大小小的大学削减项目浪潮的一部分。
The aim of the cuts is to deal with budget deficits.
削减是为了解决预算赤字问题。
Causes for the deficits include less government money, rising operational costs and fewer students.
赤字的原因包括政府资金减少、运营成本上升和学生人数减少。
The cuts mean more than reduced budget deficits or job losses.
削减不仅仅意味着减少预算赤字或失业。
“For me, it’s really been anxiety-ridden,” said Westman. "It’s just the fear of the unknown.”
“对我来说，真的很焦虑，”韦斯特曼说。“这是对未知的恐惧。”
At St. Cloud State, most students will be able to finish their degrees before the cuts.
在圣克劳德州立大学，大多数学生将能够在削减之前拿到学位。
But Westman is transferring to Augsburg University in Minneapolis.
但韦斯特曼正在转学到明尼阿波利斯的奥格斯堡大学。
For years, many colleges avoided making cuts, said Larry Lee.
拉里·李说，多年来，许多大学都避免削减开支。
He was acting president of St. Cloud State but left last month to lead Blackburn College in Illinois.
他原本是圣克劳德州立大学的代理校长，但上个月离开了，去领导伊利诺斯州的布莱克本学院。
The number of students enrolling in college dropped during the pandemic.
在疫情期间，大学的入学人数下降了。
But officials hoped the number would return to levels that existed before the COVID pandemic.
但官员们希望入学人数能恢复到新冠疫情之前的水平。
They had used federal aid money to ease budget deficits.
他们使用联邦援助资金来缓解预算赤字。
“They were holding on, holding on,” Lee said.
“他们一直在坚持，坚持下去，”李说。
The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center said students have begun to return to two-year community colleges.
国家学生信息交换所研究中心表示，学生已经开始重返两年制社区大学。
But the numbers for four-year colleges remain lower than expected.
但四年制大学的人数仍然低于预期。
Even without growing concerns about the high cost of college and student debt, the population of young adults in the U.S. is shrinking.
即便不考虑人们对高成本的大学和学生债务的担忧，美国的年轻人口也在减少。
Birth rates fell during the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009 and never recovered.
出生率在2007年至2009年的大衰退期间下降，此后再也没有恢复。
Now smaller classes of high school students are preparing to finish and head off to college.
如今，规模较小的高中生班级正要毕业，开始上大学。
“It’s very difficult math to overcome,” said Patrick Lane, a vice president at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.
西部州际高等教育委员会副主席帕特里克·莱恩说：“这是一个很难攻克的数学题。”
In addition, the new federal government’s financial aid application has created more confusion.
此外，新一届联邦政府的财政援助申请也制造了更多混乱。
Millions of students are wondering where to go to college and how to pay for it.
数以百万计的学生在思考去哪里上大学，以及如何支付学费。
Katharine Meyer is an expert with the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution.
凯瑟琳·迈耶是布鲁金斯学会布朗教育政策中心的专家。
She said, “I think a lot of colleges are really concerned they’re not going to make their enrollment targets.”
她说：“我认为很多大学很担心他们无法实现招生目标。”
Many colleges like St. Cloud State had already faced budget problems.
圣克劳德州立大学等许多大学已经面临预算问题。
The university’s enrollment rose to around 18,300 students in the autumn of 2020 before steadily falling to about 10,000 students in 2023.
该大学的招生人数在2020年秋季上升到约18300人，然后在2023年稳步下降到约10000人。
Its student population has stopped shrinking.
它的学生人数已经不再萎缩了。
But the budget deficit totaled $32 million over the past two years, forcing the sweeping cuts, Lee said.
但李说，在过去两年里，该校预算赤字总计3200万美元，这迫使了全面削减。
Some colleges have taken the more extreme step of closing.
一些大学采取了更极端的做法，直接关闭学校。
That happened at the 1,000-student Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama, the 900-student Fontbonne University in Missouri, the 350-student Wells College in New York, and the 220-student Goddard College in Vermont.
阿拉巴马州有1000名学生的伯明翰南方学院、密苏里州有900名学生的方邦大学、纽约有350名学生的威尔斯学院和佛蒙特州有220名学生的戈达德学院都直接关门了。
Cuts, however, are more common.
不过，削减开支更常见。
Two of North Carolina’s public universities in Asheville and Greensboro plan to cut 14 programs including ancient Mediterranean studies and physics.
北卡罗来纳州阿什维尔和格林斯伯勒的两所公立大学计划削减14个课程，包括古代地中海研究和物理学。
Arkansas State University announced it was ending nine programs.
阿肯色州立大学宣布将终止九个项目。
Three of the 64 colleges in the State University of New York system have also cut programs because of low enrollment and budget problems.
纽约州立大学系统中的三所学院也因为招生人数降低和预算问题而削减了课程。
Other schools cutting study programs include West Virginia University, Drake University in Iowa, the University of Nebraska campus in Kearney, North Dakota State University and nearby Dickinson State University.
其他削减学习项目的学校包括西弗吉尼亚大学、爱荷华州的德雷克大学、科尔尼的内布拉斯加大学校区、北达科他州立大学和附近的迪金森州立大学。
Experts say it is just the beginning.
专家表示，这只是个开始。
Schools that are not making cuts now are examining their class offerings.
现在没有削减开支的学校正在审查自己的课程设置。
At Pennsylvania State University, officials are looking for similar or under-enrolled programs to cut.
在宾夕法尼亚州立大学，官员们正在削减类似的或招生不足的项目。
The most affected programs are usually smaller ones and those in the humanities, which now have fewer students than 15 years ago.
受影响最大的通常是规模较小的项目和人文学科项目，与15年前相比，这些项目如今的学生人数减少了。
“It’s a humanitarian disaster for all of the faculty and staff involved, not to mention the students who want to pursue this stuff,” said Bryan Alexander, a Georgetown University senior scholar who has written on higher education.
乔治城大学资深学者布莱恩·亚历山大写过一篇关于高等教育的文章，他说：“对所有身处其中的教职员工来说，这是一场人道主义灾难，更不用说那些想要从事这方面工作的学生了。”
“It’s an open question to what extent colleges and universities can cut their way to sustainability.”
“学院和大学可以在多大程度上实现可持续发展，这是一个悬而未决的问题。”
Terry Vermillion recently retired after 34 years as a music professor at St. Cloud State.
特里·弗米利恩最近退休了，他在圣克劳德州立大学担任了34年的音乐教授。
He said the cuts are hard to watch after the pandemic.
他说，疫情之后，削减开支不易被发现。
“We were just unable to really effectively teach music online, so there’s a gap,” he said.
“我们只是无法效地在网上教授音乐，所以存在差距，”他说。
“And, you know, we’re just starting to come out of that gap and we’re just starting to rebound a little bit. And then the cuts are coming.
“而且，你知道，我们刚开始弥合这一差距，刚开始出现反弹。然后，削减就来了。”
Lilly Rhodes is a music major at St. Cloud State.
莉莉·罗兹是圣克劳德州立大学音乐专业的学生。
Rhodes said, “There’s no musicians coming in, so when our seniors graduate, they go on, and our ensembles just keep getting smaller and smaller.”
罗兹说：“没有音乐家加入，大四学生毕业离校后，我们的乐团就越来越小了。”
“It’s a little difficult to keep going if it’s like this,” she added.
她补充说：“如果是这种情况的话，要继续下去就有点难了。”
I’m Mario Ritter Jr. And I’m Jill Robbins.
我是小马里奥 · 里特。 我是吉尔 · 罗宾斯。
