[Updated (12/11/2015, 7:16 p.m.) with details on the college’s plan.]
The College of Saint Rose announced on Friday that it would eliminate 23 faculty positions as part of a broad plan to “reprioritize academic programs.” Under the plan, the New York college expects to add faculty posts in programs with high enrollments, and to “consolidate, reduce, or eliminate” programs with low or no enrollments, according to a news release issued by the college.
Undergraduate and graduate students in the programs to be discontinued -- listed in the news release -- will be able to complete their degrees, and the changes will take effect in January 2017, the college said.
At least a dozen faculty members on Friday learned that their positions would be eliminated, reports the Times Union, a newspaper in Albany, N.Y. Among those losing their jobs are several tenured professors, according to the paper, which cited the faculty union as its source.
Faculty members who lose their jobs will be offered help in finding new ones, the college said, and they may apply for some of the new posts.
The cuts are part of a previously announced effort by the college to assure its future, including the elimination of 40 staff and administrative positions. The college’s news release said it had seen a 16-percent decline in enrollment since 2008, with much of the drop in programs to be cut.
The faculty union, Service Employees International Union Local 200, said in a statement quoted by the newspaper that the job cuts had been decided without faculty input, in violation of the principles of shared governance. At least one faculty member who received the bad news on Friday took to Twitter explain what had happened: