On The Edge News

By Alyssa Allemand and Jena Emmert

Edgewood College has circulated another round of voluntary separation incentive payments (VSIPs) to continue erasing the 2019-20 $6.1 million deficit.  

The college announced VSIPs for Spring 2020 on May 1. Nine packages were offered this round. 

Faculty were to apply for VSIPs by May 13, said Vice President for Academic Affairs (VPAA) Margaret Noreuil at a Faculty Association meeting May 4. She said that faculty who applied would be informed of their status May 14. 

As of May 15, the approval had not been finalized.  

According to Lisa King, associate professor of Philosophy and a member of the Planning and Budget Committee, the current VSIPs were offered to faculty in the following areas:  

• Computer Information Sciences (1), 
• Communication Studies (1), 
• Economics (1), 
• Mathematics (1),
• the School of Education (1),  
• English (2), and
• the School of Integrative Studies (2). 

Noreuil said programs are targeted based on the work faculty did last spring on the Program Prioritization Committee. This criteria includes student inquiries, enrolled students, intended and declared majors, degrees awarded, total sections, organized sections, revenue and cost margin, student credit hours, and number of full-time faculty.  

Kelly Mella, chair of Communication Studies, said no one in her department took a VSIP. “The Communication Studies Department is one of the most productive and economically sound on campus,” she said. 

Associate Professor of Mathematics Susan Hollingsworth said she is not aware of anyone in the Math Department applying for a VSIP.

Tim Slekar, dean of the School of Education, said he does not know the VSIP status in the School of Education. 

English Department Chair Lauren Lacey said that “to [her] knowledge,” no English faculty applied for the VSIP. 

Julie C. Luecke, associate professor of Education and associate dean for graduate programs, said that she asked HR about the progress of the VSIP applications on May 14. She said that according to HR, the documents distributed said approval would be finalized “by or on May 15, 2020.” 

Noreuil said she could not provide any data on the VSIPs before faculty have been notified. “The deadline to apply was just this past Wednesday so I can’t provide any data just yet as we’re working through the information we have at this point,” she said. “It will be important to notify the people who have applied first before providing additional information to the community.” 

Leucke said she has yet to receive any additional communication since May 14. 

Previous VSIPs 

Since last spring, Edgewood College has offered three rounds of VSIPs. In April 2019, VSIPs were offered to faculty based on years of service and age.  

In September, the college announced they must make a plan for layoffs and program cuts to address the deficit. The second round of VSIPs was then announced at a Faculty Association meeting on Nov. 25. These offers were for tenure and tenure-track faculty in “areas identified through program prioritization, restructuring, and our ongoing study of enrollments and loads,” former VPAA Dean Pribbenow said. 

Ed Taylor, director of strategic communications for Edgewood, said that this year, the college has planned to reduce $4.7 million in expenditures for people and people-related costs. This current round of VSIPs aims to save $700,000 of that $4.7 million. 

“The announcement that the college will enter into additional voluntary separation agreements with faculty colleagues is consistent with steps taken in the recent past due to shifting demographics,” said Taylor in the press release. 

According to King, the budget deficit (revenues minus expenditures) for the end of the 2019-20 year is $6.1 million. With restructuring and VSIPs, the college projects the budget deficit to be $2.4 million by the end of the 2020-21 year. 

The college did not provide OTE with the number of faculty and staff separated during the 2019-20 school year. “We don’t share this data because they are not numbers, these are our colleagues,” Taylor said. “It’s not appropriate to announce who and how many and when our colleagues are separated.” 

Projected numbers, goals 

The projected 2020-21 deficit is a little over $2.4 million, Vice President for Business and Finance Mike Guns said at a college assembly on May 11. This amount does not include impacts of COVID-19 or the savings from the VSIPs, his data noted. 

Taylor said the college “continues the work to align the size of our workforce with student enrollment.” The current student/faculty ratio is about 10:1, Taylor said. The ratio will be measured again in September. 

Edgewood’s goal is a student/faculty ratio of 12:1 by Fall 2020 and 15:1 by Fall 2021, said Noreuil.  

When Noreuil took over as VPAA after Pribbenow resigned in early January, she said she was charged with cutting a total of $310,000 through academic restructuring. Noreuil said prior to this $310,000, three dean positions had been eliminated as had release time for all department chairs.  

“We’ve eliminated a significant amount of release time in many areas, and we’ve tried to eliminate as much overload as possible,” Noreuil said.  

She said they have not yet reached the $310,000 goal but are “close.” The deadline for a restructuring proposal is July 1.