Setareh Mofidi is, by all metrics, a Portland Community College success story. An aspiring audio engineer, she enrolled in PCC’s Music and Sonic Arts program in 2017, drawn to its balance of conventional music degree courses, like theory, with hands-on technical training like creative coding. 

The classes were packed with everyone from midcareer working musicians trying to gain a technical edge to sound-designers-to-be looking to save money before transferring to other schools, like Berklee College of Music in Boston. Still, Mofidi stood out. She started working as a teaching assistant before joining PCC staff as a part-time instructor, covering as many as four classes a semester in subjects like Music Tech. It felt like a dream come true. She was working in her chosen field, without going into debt, and surrounded by peers. Many fellow instructors were program graduates and working musicians themselves, including the one who recommended her for the job.

“I don’t think it would’ve happened any other way,” Mofidi says. Having another student help open the door for her was in the spirit of the Music and Sonic Arts program. “It’s all about creating a community of people of all different    backgrounds and providing these networking opportunities.”

Then, after five years teaching, everything changed. PCC, which had been reeling from a nearly $15 million budget deficit, announced that it was considering cuts to a handful of programs, including Music and Sonic Arts. The school had been tightening its belt financially since 2020, but this felt different. 

When college budgets have shrunk in the past, classes and faculty were generally considered sacred; instead, schools axed administrative positions or additional support services like career counseling. This time, college leadership asked instructors to justify their program’s usefulness based on cost efficiency, course completion rates, and job opportunities for graduates. It was an unexpected point of stress for instructors and students during finals week in late 2024, part of a larger college-wide effort to cut costs by 12 to 18 percent.

“It is a scarcity of resources,” says Abby Lee, executive director of the Oregon Community College Association. “What’s happening at PCC is not unique; it’s just on a larger scale because they’re the largest community college in the state.” The way she sees it, colleges are being forced to make hard choices to make up for rising costs—personnel, facilities, and Oregon’s oft-debated pension program, the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS). That means cutting programs.

Community colleges across Oregon are implementing budget cuts due to postpandemic enrollment dips, reduced state and federal funding, and runaway inflation. Add on the end of pandemic-era federal support and uncertainty following Trump’s executive orders to dismantle the Department of Education, and community colleges are in their most precarious position since 2020. In an eerie reflection of the federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its ruthless “optimization,” some colleges are stripping degree programs, staff jobs, and budgets without necessarily eliminating courses, leaving only a shell of what was once there.

Funding for community colleges comes largely from three places: tuition, property taxes, and state funding. Enrollment is doubly important then, as the state doles out dollars based on the number of full-time students or full-time equivalent course loads. Although things are improving—enrollment across all 17 Oregon community colleges was up 4 percent last year—things are still way below prepandemic levels. As a result, nearly all of Oregon’s community colleges have made tuition hikes every year since the pandemic started. PCC’s has risen 23 percent since 2019. This puts a disproportionate burden on the most underserved students who often attend community colleges: low-income or first-generation college students, as well as immigrants or children of immigrants.

Although community college administrations are clear to note that current challenges aren’t connected to changes at the federal level, there’s still a black cloud hanging overhead, especially considering grants for new infrastructure and academic programs. Already this April, Central Oregon Community College lost $3 million in federal funding for a new health and education building on its Madras campus. With a new wave of anti-DEI rhetoric coming from the White House and threats to the Department of Education, college leaders in Oregon are worried about the federal initiatives that support underserved Oregonians: English as a second language, high school equivalency programs for migrant workers and their children, and Head Start, which provides child care on campus for students who are parents. Lee says funders need to be honest about the unique identities and needs of community college students specifically. “We know that if we can scaffold support services with peer mentors, with other scholarship support, then we can better serve these communities,” Lee says.

PCC leadership argued that the Music and Sonic Arts program cuts came down to demand—not just within the school, but the job market. “The primary determining factor for [the Music and Sonic Arts] closure was the program’s lack of demonstrable evidence that a formal certificate or associate’s degree credential is required for employment in the field,” says James Hill, director of public relations for PCC.

It’s true that a specific degree isn’t essential for a successful career in music. But, according to testimony from some of Portland’s most prominent music industry vets —including leadership at Mississippi Studios, XRAY FM, Portland Art Museum, Alberta Abbey, and the Old Church Concert Hall—it’s a major asset in a competitive industry valued at more than $3.8 billion statewide (that’s more than logging, fishing, or cannabis.). In 2025, many industries, not just music, have turned to gig work and short-term contracts without traditional job postings and requirements. 

When the college administration issued its decision to cut Music and Sonic Arts, students, faculty, and other Portlanders fought tooth and nail to keep the program around. As part of a campaign led by PCC’s Music and Sonic Arts faculty and the nonprofit MusicPortland, hundreds of supporters, including alumni working in the field as producers or sound engineers, wrote letters to the school in protest. They packed a community meeting with the school board. Music and Sonic Arts was attractive to many students specifically for its emphasis on hard skills—MIDI, sequencing, signal processing, live audio tech—and, according to the department’s leadership, enrollment was typically full, with a waitlist. (It’s worth noting that completion numbers were consistently low, however; in the 2023–2024 academic year, 59 students graduated in the program, but there were 409 declared majors.)

Looking more broadly at programs targeted for cuts statewide, you’d have a hard time identifying any discernible pattern. There was Gerontology at PCC (unlike Music and Sonic Arts, the department didn’t appeal the cuts, and the program is in the process of being phased out). Clackamas Community College, which has a staggering $5 million deficit, has made cuts to theater but also nursing and welding. Linn-Benton Community College, which is looking to reduce its budget by $3.5 million, has already ditched its criminal justice program and, shockingly, computer science; the college restructured its adult basic skills program to operate on a smaller budget.

Rather than eliminating Music and Sonic Arts entirely, PCC proposed that some of its courses be offered—just not for credit. As Mofidi and other students point out, that introduces a new suite of problems: If it’s not a degree program, students won’t be able to use financial aid to pay for classes or use those credits to transfer to a four-year institution like Portland State University. Meanwhile, instructors would make a significantly lower salary.

“They’re devaluing the work that the instructor’s putting in and the information that these people are learning,” Mofidi says.

Current students in Music and Sonic Arts will be able to finish their classes over the next two years while the degree is phased out. As for Mofidi? She’s returned to her dream of being an audio engineer and will enroll in the fall to complete her bachelor’s degree. She hopes that moving forward, PCC admin will see the human side of the story, not just the numbers. “People are just coming here hoping that they can study what they love and, at the end of the day, have a degree for it as well.”