Contemplating a new future, many at UDC feel left behind "I don't think people understand how vital this school is," Lancaster, 22, said. It's affordable education. Officials at UDC said last week that they are considering a plan that would cut all of the school's athletic teams and eliminate nearly two dozen baccalaureate and graduate academic programs to save millions of dollars a year. The school's interim president said he hopes to reinvest that money into other academic programs, tuition assistance and online education to transform the school into something that better prepares its students for the Washington region's job market. The news hit the Van Ness campus with a bit of a thud. Students and faculty anxiously discussed the potential cuts. T-shirts and sweatpants with the school's Firebirds sports logo hung in the student bookstore as the prospect of the UDC's teams disappearance sunk in. The Faculty Senate sent a letter to the administration questioning the plan, saying the proposal lacked "the rationale, data, and analysis to support its recommendations." In some classrooms, teachers talked candidly with students about what the proposal, part of the school's Vision2020 plan, would mean. How did they even choose graphic design? Lancaster asked her friends over a plastic container of fries in the cafeteria, in Building 38 just off Connecticut Avenue. A friend suggested it might be because of low enrollment, as has been reported in the news. But that doesn't make sense to Lancaster, who couldn't even get into her major for a year because it was full. Some point out signs of investment, such as the $40 million student center under construction just outside the cafeteria. But they said they can't understand how the university wound up in such an apparently dire situation. Derrick Barnes, a 40-year-old who grew up in the District and is working toward a master's in business management, blames poor management, the city's lackluster investment and a weak alumni network. To Barnes, the proposal seems like the end of a mission to serve District residents. "As gentrification has occurred in D.C.," Barnes said, "what we're saying to [less well-off people] who are left here is we don't care." The university's interim president, James E. Lyons Sr., has said the proposals are an effort to bolster the school by adding students, staying affordable and preparing graduates for jobs in high-demand fields. Lyons hopes to use the millions of dollars in annual savings from sports and academic cuts to expand and enhance the remaining programs.