The University of Dayton is planning to cut 20 staff positions and let 45 faculty contracts expire for the next school year.
"With the external environment changes, higher ed needs to change too," UD President Eric Spina said.
He said the reduction is connected to several developments over the years, including fewer 18 year-olds from the Midwest choosing to attend UD, fewer international students enrolling, as well as a growing lack of public confidence in higher education.
Now the school is making changes to prevent UD from falling into debt, Spina said.
"Part of our mission is financial stewardship," Spina said. "The work of more than a year now has brought us to these proactive steps to make sure we're responding to the changing external environment for higher ed and to make sure that we continue to avoid a deficit like so many private universities are running deficits. We haven't. And we won't."
Spina said these cuts will keep the school fiscally strong and will not negatively impact students. Currently, UD’s student population is 10,598.
"The faculty have engaged deeply this year and will continue to make certainly our curriculum is modern and supportive of a broad education," Spina said. "We are trying to find ways to increase opportunities for our students to do additional majors, double majors, minors, and certainly experiential learning. This continues to be important and will be highlighted in the coming years as well."
According to Spina, for almost two years, his team has been watching the school's student population drop.
"We're probably going back to the size we were in about 2012. It's about maybe a 12 or 14% reduction from where we were a couple couple of years ago," said Spina. "Fewer students require fewer course sessions or require fewer staff in some key areas. So that's really the driving factor. Rather than eliminating an undergraduate program or eliminating courses."
Currently, UD has 3,156 faculty and staff and researchers.
Last September, they were told reductions would be announced in March 2025.
All notified employees will get a severance package and have access to supportive resources. Faculty will finish out their current contract and most will work through the end of the fiscal year, which ends June 30.
According to Spina, UD has an operating budget of about $600 million dollars. Over the next three years, these cuts will save the university about $25 million dollars.
He said the money will be directed toward student services and infrastructure updates.
Amid these staff cuts, Spina declared, "The University of Dayton is not backing away from what we do well. We're not backing away from being a university that has strong graduate programs that are high in demand, we're not backing away from our research enterprise, which is very significant. We continue to support our students in ways that matter."
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