“We know these decisions affect real people — our valued colleagues who have dedicated themselves to our students and mission,“ the letter added. ”Each individual has shaped our community through their teaching, mentorship and service. We recognize that avoiding a deficit and strengthening the operating budget of the university does not offer comfort to those losing their positions."
Affected employees will receive severance packages and other resources, UD said. Staff received at least four weeks’ notice and, where possible, will work through the end of the fiscal year on June 30, the university also said.
Faculty contracts are being honored through the 2024-25 academic year, UD also said.
The total cuts are around $25 million over three years, Spina said.
In a fact sheet accompanying the letter, the university said it has not run a deficit and maintains stable credit ratings.
The workforce reduction affects under 2% of its total workforce, UD also said.
“These changes are part of UD’s response to the broad set of challenges facing higher education that we’ve discussed in numerous working groups, town halls and Q&A sessions. But today, our focus is on our colleagues who received this difficult news and the impact on their lives,” the letter also says.
Spina clarified in a later interview that all notifications had been made that were planned for this year.
Spina said the university is deliberately smaller now than it used to be, closer to the size it was around 2012. Several problems facing higher education in general, including fewer graduating high schoolers, fewer international students coming to campus and less trust in higher education, all contributed to the budget issue, he said.
The letter appeared over the signatures of Spina, Darlene Weaver, UD’s provost and executive vice president of academic affairs, and Andy Horner, executive vice president for business and administrative services
Last September, the university said non-tenure track faculty contracts will not be renewed for the 2025-26 school year, and multiple master’s and doctoral programs would be eliminated.
UD at the time said notifications would be made by March 15, 2025.
“Ultimately, we hope that the various faculties will choose to bring these and other graduate programs forward for suspension so that we can make the appropriate budget improvements while also further investing in the quality of our core mission: transformational undergraduate education,” the university said last year.
The university had been planning to reduce its student headcount by about 10% to 15% and its workforce by a similar amount.
UD, one of Dayton’s larger employers, has about 11,000 students overall and 3,700 employees.
