Editorial: CMU's identity is its students
The Central Michigan Life team poses with its awards from the School of Communication, Journalism and Media on Friday, April 24, 2026. Photo by Kathy Simon.
As the 2025-26 academic year comes to an end, Central Michigan University officials are working through financial challenges and a decade-long issue of enrollment declines. Through all of this, Central Michigan Life has reported on these challenges and changes.
President Neil MacKinnon announced last month that there will be more budget cuts due to declining international student enrollment.
While CMU officials work with departments to go through more budget cuts, we hope you understand how important every aspect of each program you put under a microscope is during its budget reviews.
Funding cuts, enrollment declines and departmental restructuring are a natural part of the higher education system; we understand that.
However, as students and members of the Central Michigan community, we want to caution the newly formed leadership to always take a step back before removing a program that helps further both faculty members' and students' careers.
Don't just take our word for it, faculty also share a similar view.
President of the Faculty Association Amanda Garrison told CM Life earlier last month that she felt the university has not listened to the needs of its students or faculty.
“There have been cuts forever to the point where in this college (College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences), we are to the marrow,” she said. “This (college) is a crucial piece of any liberal education in Western civilization and we have been decimated.
“We have lost a great deal of trust…and at times it does feel like our goals and missions have not been aligned.”
The 2025-26 Operating Budget showed that the Business Administration was the college that brought in the most revenue, $45 million. The university spent over $28 million on the College of Medicine with a revenue of about $32 million.
Senior lecturer for Marketing and Professional Sales, Jeffrey Hoyle has been teaching at CMU for over 25 years.
Back in 2000, he said he remembered the university’s strongest programs were teaching, business and engineering. That was also the time when CMU started to communicate its value, and the key that the university learned was how to tell its story, he said.
“We were (a) university not in the hot, busy city, but when people came here, they just fell in love with it,” Hoyle said. "It was one of those best-kept secrets. ... I think the university finally realized, ‘hey, we got to tell this to others.’”
As an editorial team, we are hopeful for the university's future, because of the programs and community that drew us here. Programs like teaching, business, journalism and more are what make our university so great.
As CMU lost so many of its students and experienced constant turnover in senior positions, we believe part of its identity was lost. To build the university, we must continue investing in programs that not only help students grow but also help us stand out among other universities.
