UMass Boston cuts 36 jobs, slashes hours of 7 others

The University of Massachusetts at Boston is laying off 36 staffers and reducing the hours of seven others as the college continues to grapple with a massive deficit, school officials said.

“The staffing reduction decisions that have been made were driven by the financial and operational challenges that our campus faces,” Vice Chancellor for Human Resources Marie H. Bowen noted in a message to UMass Boston community members yesterday morning. “We regret the effect that this process will have on the lives of our valued colleagues, and we are grateful to them for their many contributions to the University.”

No faculty members are being laid off.

Of the 43 people affected, 14 are members of the university’s classified staff — including clerical and maintenance workers — and 29 are from the professional staff, which includes nurses, social workers and members of the university’s budget and finance departments. Campus officials planned to hold individual meetings with the employees yesterday and today.

The staff has 60 to 90 days of notice before the action goes into effect. Laid-off staffers will be eligible for severance, outplacement and other job-search services, the university said.

But two staff unions are calling on UMass President Martin T. Meehan and the Board of Trustees to halt the layoffs and use money from the college’s central reserves to stabilize the budget and develop a long-term plan to address the deficit.

“These job losses will cause unnecessary pain to the families who are affected and have a negative impact on student services,” said Janelle Quarles, president of UMass Boston’s Classified Staff Union. “The cuts will do little to address the financial problems that the UMass administrators are trying to fix.”

Tom Goodkind, president of the university’s Professional Staff Union, agreed.

“This will affect education; there is no question about it,” Goodkind told the Herald. “It is unnecessary. It is unfair. It is unwise.”

The cuts come as school officials are faced with reducing a $30 million deficit to no more than $5 million by the end of the current fiscal year.

The financial woes led to longtime chancellor J. Keith Motley stepping down at the end of the last school year. Barry Mills, the former president of Bowdoin College, has been serving as interim chancellor since July and is tasked with leading the campus out of its budget mess. He will leave his post in June, opening up a search for a permanent replacement.