On The Edge News

By Alyssa Allemand 

At a faculty meeting on Nov. 25, Dean Pribbenow, vice president for academic affairs and academic dean, announced that the college will be offering voluntary separation packages to tenure and tenure-track faculty in “areas identified through program prioritization, restructuring, and our ongoing study of enrollments and loads.” 

Pribbenow said Human Resources will send out emails with specific details to around 50 eligible faculty on Nov. 27. “Obviously, we won’t be accepting that many,” he said, “but that approximate number will be eligible.” 

Faculty must respond by Dec. 9. This deadline is key as not all eligible faculty will take the separation package and decisions on faculty and staff layoffs must be made by the end of December. 

According to Pribbenow, the voluntary separation plan includes: 

• A faculty member’s option to separate from Edgewood College “at one of three different times over the next 12 months” and 
• Pay and healthcare coverage at Edgewood’s current contribution level beyond the 12-month notice and severance that is stated in the Faculty Handbook. 

“President Gevelinger has heard the voice of faculty and others, and I am grateful to her, the board, and college leadership for supporting this initiative,” Pribbenow said. 

Entrepreneurship minor 

Faculty also proposed a minor in entrepreneurship that will be voted on at the next Faculty Association meeting Jan. 27.  

The minor is “very interdisciplinary,” said Art Department Chair Bob Tarrell, and requires “no new courses, no new facilities, no new faculty.” 

As of now, the entrepreneurship minor resides in the Art department.  

“We felt like if it sat in Business, it would be somewhat limiting to Business students,” said interim Dean of the School of Business Victoria Palmisano. “And the liberal arts students, who we really want to attract to this, may be a little bit afraid of it because it had the business tagline to it.” 

The proposal says the entrepreneurship minor “provides the necessary skills for students across the Edgewood College curriculum to build their knowledge of and skills in the practice of starting and running small business entities both for- and non- profit with varying purposes and missions.”