Like many New England colleges and universities, Providence-based Johnson & Wales University has been hit hard by declining enrollments. University officials say cost-cutting hasn’t kept pace with the smaller student body.
On Tuesday, university officials announced it is laying off 52 faculty members and 39 staff people — 91 people in all. That’s 5% of the university’s workforce.
Three out of four of the jobs being cut are assigned to JWU’s Providence Campus. The rest are assigned to JWU’s campus in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In a letter addressed to her colleagues, Chancellor Mim Runey said, “We understand this will be difficult news for all of the JWU community.”
But, she said, JWU is trying to close a $34 million budget deficit brought on mostly by declining enrollment. She said that the student body is now 50% of what it was in 2011.
“We have a larger workforce than what was required to execute our academic and service programs and it became necessary to reduce our workforce in order to continue to offer an affordable tuition and to continue to successfully run the institution,” Runey told The Public’s Radio.
She declined to say what academic programs or even what staff areas will be affected.
“The reduction wasn’t driven by any strategic decision,” Runey said. “Rather, it was an analysis of the work that we need to conduct across the institution and the human resources that we need to conduct that work.”
But some of the employees affected by the cuts say there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason behind the cuts.
“They didn’t get rid of the newest or the most senior people,” said Karen Morey, one of 7 staff members let go from the Instructional Design and Technology Department.
“It’s been very messy,” Morey said, who was notified Tuesday that she is among the people being laid off.
“The mood on campus has been awful. We knew the university was struggling, but now we see how bad it really is.”
Johnson & Wales has faced some unique financial management issues in recent years. In 2018, before Runey became chancellor, her predecessor enjoyed a compensation package that was reportedly three times that of his counterpart at Brown University and 8 times more than his counterpart at RISD.
The university has gone through several rounds of cost-cutting since then, including shutting down satellite campuses in Denver and North Miami.
Runey insisted these new job cuts will help put the university on a sound financial footing.
“I believe that it sets us on a path for success moving forward,” she said. “It allows us to be focused on the programs and the work that we have at hand.”
