Wright State to cut 50 positions
President: Enrollment could drop by 2,200 to 10,500 in the fall.
Wright State University will cut 50 jobs and university leaders are preparing for what they expect to be an enrollment decrease this fall, Sue Edwards, Wright State’s president, said in an interview.
“It is with a heavy heart that I announce, beginning today, we will commence notification of involuntary position eliminations,” Edwards said in a campus email the university shared with the Dayton Daily News Monday. “This will impact approximately 50 occupied positions on our campuses. Some will not have contracts renewed, some are retiring, while others will be provided notice and/or other applicable options.
“These are the worst days of my career, when I have to let people go,” Edwards said in an interview.
Last fall, Wright State reported an official enrollment of 13,742 students.
Today, university officials feel enrollment is trending toward a fall 2020 figure of 10,500 students, a decrease of about 2,200 from 2019 — but Edwards cautioned that it was too soon to say where that number will ultimately land.
Her campus email warned readers that the university needs to prepare for a student body of perhaps 10,000 students.
Ohio is also planning a 20% cut in Wright State’s state funding — making reductions and reform necessary, Edwards said.
“We are working to re-imagine
the university of the future,” she said. University leaders are exploring the reduction of the number of Wright State’s colleges to four from seven, cutting the administrative footprint along the way.
As administrators are “redesigning the university,” they have over the past year also reviewed departments and operations, Edwards said. University leaders will continue those reviews, and these 50 cuts are what admin- istrators are planning at the moment.
“We have to manage the state’s resources,” she said. “We are but stewards of the state’s resources and also of the students’ tuition.”
Union leadership representing Wright State faculty told the Dayton Daily News earlier this month that fac- ulty members believe admin- istrators seek to “fire” senior, tenured faculty — and the president of the union said the university has hired an external labor attorney to assist Wright State in con- tract talks.
“We wanted them to come to the table and help, and that’s something they’re really not interested in doing,” Edwards said of the union, adding: “It was never my intention to dismantle tenure. That’s not what these conversations are about.
“We have a situation where there is a lack of trust on the union’s side, due to their past experiences,” she said. “I was hoping we could work through that. And I still hope that we can.”
WrightState faculty went on strike against the uni- versity for 20 days in the winter of 2019, in what was thought to be the longest faculty union strike in Ohio’s history. That strike was ended under former WSU President Cheryl Schrader, who announced her retirement in October 2019.
The university’s human resources office has prepared “separation materials” and will accompany university supervisors while they meet with impacted employees, Edwards said in her email.
In her email, she said campus leaders “must resize the university so we can operate within the revenue generated by an enrollment of 10,000 students and ulti- mately ensure that we continue to serve the needs of our region.”
She added that 35 faculty members chose to participate in a retirement “incentive program” and will separate from Wright State in coming weeks.
Those 35 early retirements are not counted as part of the 50 planned position cuts, Edwards noted.
All American universities are struggling to come to grips with the post-COVID-19 landscape, exploring what may be smaller student bodies and new campus health requirements.
The University of Dayton in late April said it will furlough about 450 employees and lay off an additional 60 employees this summer.
Contact this reporter at 937225-2390 or email Tom. Gnau@coxinc.com.