The news out of Houston hit me a little differently than I expected. The University of Houston cutting 40% of its core courses is the kind of headline that sounds like a spreadsheet problem until you remember there are actual people attached to those numbers. Students who mapped out their semesters, who planned around a required history section that no longer exists, who might now be staring down an extra year of tuition because the one class they needed got shelved. That's not an administrative footnote. That's a Tuesday.
I get that universities have to make hard calls. Budgets aren't imaginary, and nobody's pretending otherwise. But when you slice that deep into the core, you're not just trimming fat. You're telling students that the foundation you promised them is negotiable. It's the kind of move that makes you wonder what else is on the table. And honestly, it makes me grateful for the conversations happening back home. We've talked before about how WSU Can Learn From Cornell: Rebuilding Trust Through Purpose hinges on the idea that a university's real job is to give people a reason to show up. Houston's move feels like the opposite of that. It's a signal that the institution is more worried about its own ledger than the path it promised to pave for its students.
There's also a bigger lesson here about how we treat education as a transactional exchange. When schools start cutting core requirements, they're quietly redefining what a degree is supposed to mean. It's no longer about becoming a well-rounded thinker. It's about hitting the minimum viable checklist to get a piece of paper that says you didn't quit. That's a grim standard, and it's one that hits hardest for students who don't have the safety net to absorb a surprise scheduling gap. I'm not saying every course is sacred. But there's a difference between trimming electives and gutting the classes that teach you how to think, not just what to click.
If a student came to me asking what to make of this, I'd tell them to pay attention to where the cuts land. Watch which classes survive and which ones disappear. That tells you more about an institution's priorities than any mission statement ever will. And I'd remind them to build relationships with their advisors and professors now, because when the system gets tight, the people who know your name are the ones who can help you find a backup plan. At Nebraska’s Bid to Return to Research Group Faces Scrutiny, the debate is about prestige and research clout, but the throughline is the same: universities are making choices about what they value, and students are the ones who feel it. Houston just made their choice loud and clear. The real question is whether anyone was actually listening.
