Dive Brief:
- Faculty members and students at the University of Michigan-Dearborn have sounded the alarm about imminent instructor layoffs, canceled courses and rising class sizes in the arts and sciences college ahead of the winter semester.
- The public university could lay off nontenure-track faculty just weeks before the Jan. 6 start of the winter semester while also cutting and consolidating courses, the UM-Dearborn chapter of the Lecturers’ Employee Organization said in a blog post last week. The union anticipates a round of layoffs and course cuts in early December.
- However, a spokesperson for the university said in an emailed statement Monday that the institution can’t yet provide details about layoffs or course reductions, as final decisions haven’t been made. Final decisions are expected by Dec. 20, the spokesperson added.
Dive Insight:
The lecturers’ union decried changes implemented by UM-Dearborn’s College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters that it said came “without warning or faculty input, have bypassed established faculty governance, ignored the Union contract, and hurt students.”
However, the university said in a Monday statement that the administration “will work closely with college faculty and staff, in a collaborative manner, to seek input on proposed actions as we all work together to address the budgetary challenges ahead of us.”
The university’s arts and sciences college is “experiencing challenging financial times, like many liberal arts colleges across the country,” according to its statement.
The university added, “Consideration and discussion continues in the college and final decisions have not been made.”
Course cuts could include upper-level classes that the union said would impact students majoring in journalism, history, philosophy and writing and could leave students with fewer options to meet their graduation requirements.
“Rising class sizes — up to double in some cases — undermine meaningful faculty-student engagement and disregard national standards for student-to-faculty ratios,” the lecturers’ union said in the post. “Parents and students, drawn to UM-Dearborn for its reputation for small classes and personalized instruction, are voicing outrage.”
The organization cited an online petition that students launched in late November. The petition, which garnered over 425 signatures by Monday afternoon, pointed to increases in course sizes of at least 25% and by 100% in one case. It asks administrators to reconsider the decision to consolidate.
UM-Dearborn’s financial position weakened in fiscal 2023, which it attributed to “enrollment declines beyond expected and increasing inflationary expenses.”
The university posted a $3.7 million deficit for the year, according to its latest financials. Tuition revenue that year fell $3.5 million short of budget as overall enrolled credit hours declined by 3,510 year over year. At the time, the university reported its fourth consecutive year of total enrollment declines since 2019.
Between 2019 and 2022, fall enrollment dropped 10.5% to 8,223 students. According to the university, 8,104 students are enrolled for the 2024-25 academic year.
In a message to campus this summer, Chancellor Domenico Grasso pointed to a projected slight increase in the student population for the 2024-25 academic year. That, he said, would have a “small, but positive” impact on the university’s budget.
In the same message, Grasso noted the budget challenge posed by inflation and rising insurance expenses, including healthcare costs spiking by 12%. He said then that various university units reduced spending for the current fiscal year to offset rising costs “in ways that will not impact student learning.
