By Jena Emmert
Edgewood College will begin plans for laying off staff and faculty and reducing majors by Fall 2020 to accommodate for the college’s decline in enrollment.
Sister Mary Ellen Gevelinger, O.P., interim president of the college, told her first college assembly that the Vice President and Dean of Students are currently working to finalize program prioritization, general education requirement recalibration and release of faculty and staff to present to the board of trustees meeting on Nov. 15. This deadline, according to Gevelinger, is “set in stone.”
Edgewood’s main two goals are to stabilize enrollment and expand resources more slowly. In order to bring enrollment levels back to normal, the college intends to invest in enrollment increase initiatives. “The new normal is maintaining,” said Gevelinger.
The college plans to align staffing, increase the student to faculty ratio, and restructure schools and administration to use resources adequately.
Last April, the trustees approved the first deficit budget in Gevelinger’s time as a trustee member, she said. Since April, this deficit has doubled.
According to Michael Guns, vice president of business and finance, 92.4% of Edgewood’s total revenue comes from students, including tuition, room and board, books and more. The other 7.6% comes from other sources, such as donors and sponsors.
For a school like Edgewood, low enrollment means lower overall revenue. For the 2015-16 school year, Edgewood’s total revenue was $48.5 million. Today, the college’s revenue is $41.3 million, meaning it has dropped $7.2 million in the last three years. Edgewood projects a $6.1 million loss for the 2019-20 year alone.
The decrease in revenue is largely due to a significant drop in enrollment. Edgewood’s current full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollment is 1,682 students. In 2015-16, the college’s FTE was 2,218 students. “These numbers include undergraduate, graduate, and returning adult programs,” Guns said.
About 68% of the school’s revenue goes toward people and people-related costs. Edgewood now must make faculty and staff cuts in order to return to the 13:1 student-to-faculty-ratio they desire and balance out resources. Gevelinger said that layoffs will be made known to faculty and staff by Dec. 31.
In addition to layoffs, the Program Prioritization Committee will work towards reducing majors, specifically looking at low-enrollment departments like the Arts and Sciences. According to a press release from Edgewood College, the goals are “simplifying its organizational structure, consolidation of some academic and student services departments, reducing the number of majors offered, and other proposals designed to increase efficiency in meeting the needs of students.”
Gevelinger said that general education requirements will be organized as well. Certain majors with low enrollment will continue to have classes in the field, although the major will be eliminated.
The college assembly also revealed that faculty and staff will have working days over Fall Break (Oct. 7 and 8), normally days off, to work towards program prioritization and the Nov. 15 deadline.
Edgewood has been looking towards creating initiatives to increase enrollment. These initiatives include additions of men’s volleyball and women’s and men’s lacrosse teams. There will also be a new Respiratory Therapy program.
Edgewood follows a trend of national decreasing college enrollment. Four-year for-profit schools, however, are seeing a 20% decrease in enrollment from the previous year, according to Guns.
Gevelinger called it a “sobering report” while also saying that this is the “gentle uprooting” phase of Edgewood’s march to the future.
Gevelinger insisted that faculty and staff should try to minimize commentary on the upcoming changes. “It’s important we don’t weight them with our concerns.”
She continued to mention that this is also a difficult time to find a new college leader, as no president wants to begin their position with a deficit, structural changes and program cuts.
“This is really difficult news. This is not what I signed up for,” said Gevelinger on her fifth day as interim president. “What frightens us will also strengthen us.”
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