Universities face difficult challenges across countless fronts, and one of the biggest fears is that recent changes have particularly harmed the liberal arts, leading to fewer liberal arts classes, students, faculty, programs, and departments. There is evidence that some universities have reduced liberal arts faculty and closed liberal arts programs and departments. Practical fields such as business and computer science also have a growing presence on university campuses. What do these changes mean when it comes time for universities to restructure, an activity I label the academic chopping block? Does the growth of practical fields make liberal arts classes, programs, and departments more vulnerable to termination? Are universities more likely to close liberal arts fields than practical arts fields during times of retrenchment and reorganization? In three chapters, this dissertation argues that the answer to these related questions is no. Overall, population shifts might favor practical fields, but practical fields are most likely to suffer when chopping blocks terminate academic programs and departments. To explain this finding, the dissertation puts forth a double-facing theory of university change. It proposes that academic disciplines are broken into those that are shielded by institutional forces and those that face quasi-markets. Liberal arts disciplines are institutionalized and are thus less vulnerable to closure than are practical arts disciplines, such as engineering, which are shaped by quasi-market forces. Three chapters provide the following evidence: 1. Universities were more likely to add practically-oriented departments, such as engineering, business, and biomedicine, than liberal arts programs between 1975 and 2010. 2. Conversely, practically-oriented departments, such as engineering and business, were more likely to close than liberal arts departments between 1975 and 2010. 3. Between 1984 and 2012, universities were far more likely to close low-enrollment engineering programs than low-enrollment language programs. 4. Although the biomedical sciences are seen as being some of the most commercially-oriented fields on campuses, biomedical departments have a higher failure rate than do liberal arts science departments. In sum, this dissertation challenges many accepted assumptions about higher education in America.