When Chancellor Nicholas Dirks announced the need for drastic spending cuts in light of a $150 million annual structural deficit in February, it seemed inevitable that academic life at UC Berkeley would be impacted. But the cuts so far proposed — including dissolving the campus College of Chemistry and cutting the public health major — would unnecessarily compromise students’ education and cause UC Berkeley’s status as an academic powerhouse to suffer.

On Monday, the department of public health announced that it would suspend its admissions cycle indefinitely. This leaves many students, who might have chosen UC Berkeley particularly for its high-ranked public health major, facing the possibility of having to restructure their entire campus experience or transfer. Officials from the campus School of Public Health must reverse course to ensure that students already at UC Berkeley who planned on majoring in public health still have that opportunity.

Dealing with a deficit of this magnitude will inevitably require drastic changes. But when cuts have the potential to affect students’ entire academic trajectory, they deserve proper warning.

The proposal to dissolve the College of Chemistry, though not assured, similarly puts an unreasonable strain on students. The system of separate, smaller colleges provides students with more personalized and targeted advising and resources. Moreover, certain requirements in the campus College of Letters and Science, such as the seven-course breadths, could prove cumbersome for chemistry students who already have strict requirements.

Additionally, the College of Chemistry carries a considerable amount of prestige and independence, making it an attractive option for the world’s top scientists and students. Folding it into the colleges of Letters and Science and Engineering would strip much of the prestige and history away from the chemistry degree programs, thereby drawing fewer distinguished faculty members.

The College of Letters and Science already houses about two-thirds of undergraduate students, and fighting through the bureaucracy — even to get an adviser meeting — is by no means easy. Moving around, or even eliminating, majors will not reduce the number of students who attend UC Berkeley. Advisers and resources will have to keep pace, no matter what bureaucratic body they fall under.

Given the vagueness and uncertainty that have followed these recent proposals, many prospective and enrolled students on campus will find themselves in limbo, unsure of whether their desired colleges or majors will exist next semester. Campus officials must work swiftly to erase this culture of fear and uncertainty and come up with concrete plans as soon as possible.

With a $150 million deficit, retaining the current level of academic success in the face of budget cuts may seem impossible. But it would be counterintuitive to rescue the campus from its deficit by threatening prized elements of our education.

Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Senior Editorial Board as written by the opinion editor.