"I’m hearing over and over from students that these cuts are making real tangible impacts on students' education, students ability and comfortability with seeking help when they need help," said J.J. DeFeo, a James Madison College junior and member of its student senate.

MSU announced in June that it would reduce its operating budget by 9% over the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 fiscal years. On its "financial planning" webpage, the university says that the cuts will be executed meticulously, so as to “protect the Spartan student experience, including delivery of courses and instruction."

But with the start of the academic year, MSU students are seeing the ways that the cuts are, in fact, percolating into classrooms.

The realization comes as they pay more than ever to attend the university, owing to a 4.5 percent tuition hike approved by the Board of Trustees in June. 

"I was paying a lot less last year than now," said sophomore Joslynn Shull. "It’s a ton more. I do have a job, so that definitely helps, but the increase was a lot of money, still."

TA cuts

Freshman classes in James Madison College that used to be staffed with teaching assistants are now having to deal without them.

"It's a small impact for us [professors]," said Anna Pegler-Gordon, a JMC professor. "But I do think it's a big impact on students, because when we had TAs, you had a peer to go to, who had been through that experience, to talk with on how to understand the readings or prepare for a quiz, and we don't have that now."

Also missing from the first days of JMC’s introductory courses: printed packets of assigned readings. Why? Because those are normally handled by student staff in the MSU library. This year, professors assembled the packets themselves, and they weren’t done until weeks into the semester.

"We would have had them in time if we'd turned to the library, but then the library cut their student workers," said Pegler-Gordon.

In an email sent to the college earlier this month, JMC Dean Cameron Thies seemed to address concerns of the sort, saying "faculty and staff are working with student organizations to identify collaborative opportunities that will stretch our limited event resources further while maintaining meaningful programming."

In all, MSU has cut 26 student positions since the start of the academic year, according to university communcations.

Class sizes

Budget cuts have also led to larger class sizes, some faculty said, due to a halt on hiring new faculty. Robert Bell, a mathematics professor, said the Lyman Briggs College had to cancel certain math classes because they could not hire fixed-term faculty to fill in for those on leave. 

"We couldn’t offer these courses," he said. "It was very clear that we were not going to hire anyone on a fixed term basis unless it was an emergency."

DeFeo, the JMC student, said he’s noticed the shift in class sizes. It’s disappointing, he said, because "having smaller class sizes, you feel more comfortable going to the professor, and absorb the information better."

Study abroad

The cuts have affected study abroad programs, too. 

Last spring, professor Pegler-Gordon taught a JMC class that went to London for two weeks.

"This year we look and we are not able to offer that because of the budget cuts," she said. 

The trip to London was made up of nearly 20 students, a majority of whom were on financial aid from the university to attend.  

"We cut TAs, we cut these funded study abroad programs and we have more limited funding for students to support the study abroad of all economic backgrounds and it affects all students, but it's going to hit the students who have the greatest need, the hardest," professor Pegler-Gordon said. 

Cuts to come

The current cuts only represent part of the overall reduction. Colleges were instructed to find a 6% cut this year, and 3% during the 2026-2027 academic year.

It remains to be seen how the rest of the cuts will manifest. Naoko Wake, a history and Lyman Briggs College professor, said she fears that graduate program funds may be affected next — potentially changing more of the undergrad experience.

Cutting funding for graduate programs could lead to less TAs, she said, because "we would accept less graduate students, and many of the TAs are graduate students that work closely with undergraduate students."