As state universities across the nation face budget troubles, declining enrollments and pressure to cut humanities courses and majors that have few students, some university systems are searching for innovative ways to restructure majors or entire universities.

The schools aim to continue teaching the humanities while also reducing costs and focusing on students getting jobs after graduation. For some schools, that means integrating the humanities into science or technology majors. For others, it means offering online humanities courses to students spread out on multiple campuses.

But the changes have sparked protests from some students and faculty who say the cutbacks will harm the quality of the courses and reduce the number of professors.