COLLEGE CUTS

Morehouse College announces layoffs, pay cuts and furloughs as part of a plan to fill a budget gap caused by the pandemic.

Morehouse College announced Monday it will lay off 13 fulltime employees, enact pay cuts for nearly 200 employees and institute two-month furloughs for more than 50 employees as part of a plan to fill a budget gap caused in large part by the coronavirus pandemic.

The changes are scheduled to take effect June 1, the college’s president, David A. Thomas, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an interview Monday afternoon. The cost-cutting measures are expected to save the private, historically black college about $3.4 million, said Thomas, who has volunteered to take a 25% pay cut.

Morehouse, located about a mile west of Mercedes-Benz Stadium near downtown Atlanta, agreed to give pro-rated refunds to students after closing the campus and moving classes online in mid-March. The college, which has about 2,200 students, is anticipating an enrollment decline of about 525 students for the fall semester, which Thomas said may be conducted online.

Morehouse has about 500 employees, including adjunct faculty.

Thomas said students should not see a reduction in campus services. He’s looking at using more adjunct professors as one option to prevent a decline in classroom instruction. Thomas urged prospective students to still consider Morehouse, despite the challenges.

Thomas called the budget decisions the most difficult he has faced during his more than 30 years in higher education.

Other Georgia schools are facing similar financial challenges. The University System of Georgia, which receives a significant portion of its funding through state funds, must submit a budget cutting plan to state officials by Wednesday. The 330,000-student system, which includes the state’s largest public universities, has already announced it will not raise tuition this fall, and anticipates losing $350 million through the summer. Emory University, the state’s largest private institution, last month announced a hiring freeze and other cost-cutting measures.

Morehouse, though, was facing financial challenges before the pandemic. The college announced plans in September

to furlough employees to fill a $5 million budget gap, but dropped the plan a month later, days before faculty planned a walkout. The budget gap was created by unpaid tuition and fees from about 500 students, nearly one-quarter of its enrollment. Thomas said Monday he has discussed the furlough plan with college trustees and talked about Morehouse’s financial challenges with faculty in recent town hall meetings.

Morehouse, the nation’s only college dedicated exclusively to the education of African American men, has received some major donations, but many of those have gone to students and cannot be used for general operations and salaries. Last year, billionaire technology investor Robert F. Smith agreed to pay off the student debt for Morehouse’s entire graduating class of 2019. Oprah Winfrey last year donated $13 million to a Morehouse scholarship program.

Andre Perry, who studies historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) for the Brookings Institution, said the pandemic has exposed longstanding problems for private HBCUs, such as a lack of federal Pell Grant funding for tuition and getting a lesser share of grants and gifts from philanthropic organizations. HBCU students generally rely more on Pell Grants to pay their tuition.

“(HBCUs) are always going to be vulnerable to the economic winds as they blow,” said Perry, who wrote about some of the challenges in his new book, “Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities.”

Thomas said Morehouse is exploring several revenue generating ideas, such as programs for adult learners who didn’t complete their college degrees, public-private partnerships to better utilize its properties, and a coding boot camp. It’s also exploring partnerships with Atlanta’s other HBCUs to share services and cut costs. Thomas said the college must look at this as an opportunity to develop longterm strategies to be financially strong.

“We really see this as a moment to enhance and innovate on the Morehouse legacy,” Thomas told the AJC. “Whenever you announce cuts, there’s always a depressive quality to it, but I would dare say that we’re quite optimistic about the future here at Morehouse.”