More Than A Hundred University Faculty In Pennsylvania To Lose Their Jobs

For weeks, faculty across the 14 universities in the Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) have been dreading the anticipated news of large-scale faculty layoffs. And Friday, the bad news came. More than 100 tenure and tenure-track faculty members at Indiana, Edinboro, Lock Haven, Cheyney and Mansfield universities were told they would be losing their jobs, effective at the end of the current academic year.

The notifications, which were contractually required to be made by October 30 under a collective bargaining agreement, may be just the start. Other faculty, including adjuncts, could sill receive notice later in the school year.

Indiana University of Pennsylvania

The biggest hit was at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, which notified 81 faculty members on Friday that they would be out of work at the end of the academic year.

“We’re still kind of absorbing the shock,” said David Chambers, a political science professor who is vice president of the IUP chapter of the faculty union.

Chambers said the reductions, when added to retirements and nonrenewal of temporary contracts, would bring the job losses to the equivalent of about 128 full-time positions.

The cuts will also result in the elimination of several academic departments entirely, including journalism and public relations, information systems and decision sciences and developmental studies.

Earlier this week, IUP President Michael Driscoll had informed the university that enrollment was being closed in five programs in the College of Fine Arts – theatre-musical theatre, interdisciplinary fine arts-dance arts, the master of fine arts in art, master of art-art education and art studio – for fall 2021. That decision was part of a retrenchment in the face of a 33% enrollment decline over the last decade, resulting in a $16 million budget shortfall this year.

Edinboro University

At Edinboro University, faculty were notified on Friday that the University planned to eliminate the equivalent of more than 50 full-time faculty jobs next spring. Included in the cuts are 21 tenured or tenure-track faculty and the full-time equivalent of 26 temporary and adjunct faculty. An additional nine faculty jobs that currently are vacant will not be filled.

According to Edinboro President Guiyou Huang, another 12 permanent faculty members have been transferred to other jobs in the university. Huang added, “While necessary, these decisions are not easy. They are life-changing for the faculty involved and for their families.” 

Lock Haven, Cheyney and Mansfield universities

Although fewer details were available for the layoffs at other PASSHE institutions, press accounts indicated that six faculty were notified of at Cheyney, two at Lock Haven and three at Mansfield.

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The faculty notifications are just the latest in a series of moves within the PASSHE system to shore up its financial standing, which has been seriously threatened by years of declining enrollment, coupled with the devastating budget impact of the coronavirus. Academic reorganizations, unit consolidations, workforce reductions, and belt tightening of expenses have become regular occurrences.

Earlier in October, the PASSHE Board of Governors approved the next step in a process that could result in California, Clarion and Edinboro universities merging into a single unit in Western Pennsylvania along with the combination of Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield universities in the state’s Northern Tier.

“We are seizing an opportunity to rise up together,” PASSHE Chancellor Dan Greenstein told the board for the 14 state-owned universities. Trying to sound optimistic, Greenstein insisted that the mergers would allow the schools to maintain their own identities, save money, benefit students and develop opportunities for growth.

But it was hard to find much optimism over the day’s grim announcements among PASSHE faculty and students. For them, Friday was a day of sadness, one more setback at institutions that have had far more than their fair share.