Rollins College eliminating 8% of its workforce

Anticipating drops in enrollment and revenue next year, Rollins College is reducing its workforce by 8% and implementing pay cuts for many others.

The college’s budget will shrink about 13% from $120 million to $104 million, President Grant Cornwell wrote in an email to employees on Wednesday, citing “massive disruptions and challenges” created by the coronavirus pandemic.

“The only prudent course of action is to re-engineer Rollins to be smaller than we are now, not just next year, but for the foreseeable future,” Cornwell wrote. “Eliminating $16 million from our budget will be painful, and the pain will be shared and felt throughout every corner of this community we cherish. This is an extremely difficult process that we will undertake with compassion and regret.”

The staffing reductions include “a significant number” of open positions, his email said. In addition to layoffs, the college will cut the pay of employees earning $45,000 or more and suspend a match of contributions to employees’ retirement accounts, the email said.

The college has spent several weeks considering these changes, Cornwell wrote.

The bulk of Rollins’ revenue in 2018 — $116 million — came from tuition, federal tax documents

show. The rest of the college’s revenue, which totaled $206 million came in smaller amounts from areas like private contributions, government grants and fees paid by students for services like residence halls and dining plans.

Rollins is still taking applications for fall admission and is one of 14 Florida schools included on the National Association for College Admission Counseling’s list of campuses with available spots. The school is “focused on obtaining the best class possible for 2020-21 and on reinforcing our connection with our returning students,” Cornwell wrote.

Across the country, colleges and universities have switched to online-only classes and implemented cost-savings measures like pay cuts, furloughs and layoffs. Some are bracing for drops in student enrollment this fall. Others are expecting a continued loss in revenues from foregone housing and dining plan fees as campuses remain mostly shuttered.

Rollins has also ended its Winter Park Institute speaker series, executive director Gail Sinclair posted on social media. Started in 2008, the program brought in people like U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, Paul McCartney and Jane Goodall to speak to students and members of the public.

Additionally, the college is discontinuing the Community School of Music, STARS Senior Enrichment Program and Winter With the Writers programs. The cross country team, which has had low participation, is also being disbanded, Cornwell wrote. Some auxiliary operations that can be outsourced, such as print services, are being terminated. And college-sponsored travel will be limited for 2020-2021, as will most internal food and entertainment budgets.

Other Central Florida schools also are anticipating reductions in the coming months.

The University of Central Florida is projecting a loss in revenue totaling $48.7 million through this August, though the school hasn’t implemented any pay cuts, layoffs or furloughs, spokesman Chad Binette said. However, some temporary hourly employees were not scheduled to work over the summer, he said. These tended to be workers in “student-facing roles” in areas like the student union and parking services. Some of the employees who were not scheduled to work this summer were students, he said.

Additionally, Seminole State College has reduced the hours of 70 part-time employees and laid off 39 others because of changes related to the pandemic, spokeswoman Kim Allen said.

“The affected part-time employees were those whose jobs could not be performed remotely or whose roles were not essential at this time,” Allen wrote in an email.

Valencia College, which has campuses in Orange and Osceola counties, has not implemented pay cuts or layoffs for full-time employees, though it has enacted a hiring freeze, spokeswoman Linda Shrieves said. Summer enrollment is up, she said, and Valencia has increased its part-time faculty ranks over last year’s by 14%. She said the school is expecting enrollment to surge this fall, in part from people who have been laid off elsewhere.