>But it’s much harder if you wait until a crisis to act.

The same thing happened to the chemistry department back in 2004 at my university. I was in Physics and knew the head admin for our school (he was also a physist and a research scientist) very well despite being an undergrad.

We discussed it over lunch and he outlined how they'd been being warned for over a decade. How they hadn't reduced their expenses. How they hadn't increased their undergrad intake or done excellent research or even gotten a lot of grants.

In the last 20 years I've seen plenty more examples of departments, companies or projects that do NOT listen to warnings or take care to maintain their metrics. And are then Shocked to find their existence in question.

In the 21st century, only the conscientious survive.

I can't help but notice that the author is at the University of Vermont. I know because my sister did her masters in that state that there is a distinct oversupply of Universities that were barely hanging on as is. Even without Covid, I have to wonder about the long term prospects of a department that doesn't take that kind of warning seriously given the existence of multiple entire schools shutting down around them. Maybe the thought process is "It won't happen to us, we're public". Who knows.

Even if a department is doing well, it may sometimes be eliminated. Think of a garden - I plant 4 tomato plants. After they've grown a while I pull up two, even if they're doing well. Because there's only enough soil, water and room for 2.