By Alyssa Allemand and Jena Emmert
Program prioritization and faculty layoff plans have not yet been approved despite a November 14 deadline and board of trustees meeting, leaving faculty frustrated.
“We were all hoping we would be farther along,” said Interim President Sister Mary Ellen Gevelinger, “and we just aren’t.”
Faculty who attended the November College Assembly were expecting to learn how schools are being restructured, what the organizational structure of the institution will be, and how many faculty members will be cut in an attempt to reduce a multi-million budget deficit.
Over the next two years, said Gevelinger, college administrators are trying to reduce $4.5 million of a $6 million deficit. “. . . Extreme changes are required to reimagine a financially sustainable college in our second semester,” she said.
But none of these decisions or changes have been finalized.
Gevelinger also did not provide a ballpark estimate of the number of people the college will lay off. “Just a scale of the problem would be helpful,” said Jacob Griffin, chair of environmental studies and associate professor.
Ferrinne Spector, associate professor of psychology, said she understood that decisions can take a long time. “But . . . the people making those decisions should be able to anticipate that they’re not giving the information that they said we would be having,” Spector said.
Gevelinger stated the changes that were proposed to the board, which include:
- replacing the five-school model currently in place into a two-school model, “recreating a more efficient academic delivery model with changes in departments and division,”
- not renewing several annual contracts for adjuncts and lecturers, and
- cutting staff and dean positions.
She said that she is not ready to reveal how many will be laid off. Those losing their jobs will receive letters from the college in the mail by Dec. 16 and will have one-on-one meetings with their supervisors if possible.
The president said administration and the board may consider sending these letters out sooner for the sake of those travelling for the holidays.
All tenure and tenure-track faculty are under a contract that says they require one-year notice and payoff if they are laid off.
Decisions are now up to the board, whose executive committee will work alongside administration “as the details … of the plan continue to unfold,” Gevelinger said. “They will provide the final authorization for implementation of the plan beginning in December and through the rest of Spring 2020.”
Gevelinger said she “will write a letter to the community and share as much as possible” sometime in the next three weeks.
“I want us to lean into our values today, and especially I’m leaning into the value of community,” said Gevelinger at the start of the assembly.
Some faculty members left the meeting feeling disappointed at the lack of a formal announcement. “It would have been compassionate to have led with that,” said Spector.
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