Business

Marietta College announces administrative, faculty job cuts

MARIETTA -- A local college plans on cutting faculty and staff positions in the foreseeable future.

Marietta College announced Friday that 36 currently employed faculty and staff roles will be eliminated over the next three years.

In addition to this, 13 currently vacant roles will not be filled, according to a press release.

MC President Dr. Margaret Drugovich shared details of the cuts with faculty and staff at an open session, the release said. The positions being cut include the 10 faculty and staff line cuts that were part of the Academic Program Review cuts announced in October.

Of the 36 positions being cut, 22 are full or part-time faculty positions and 14 are administrative positions. Tenured faculty are not included in the cuts. The cuts will not affect the development of the Center for the Earth, Energy and Environment (CEEE), according to the release.

The changes will occur in the current fiscal year, as well as fiscal years 2025 and 2025, the release said.

According to MC Vice President of Communication and Brand Management Tom Perry, a majority of the 14 administrative positions will be eliminated as of March 1. Some of the faculty being eliminated will complete their contract requirements this academic year and the rest will complete their instructional responsibilities during the 2024-25 academic year.

Perry said the teaching load for faculty members will not change and that it will stay at an average for 12 credit hours per semester or equivalent.

"We may reassign work when/if current employees have the skills needed. Many of the services and resources will still be available on campus, but handled by other employees," Perry said of the effect of the cuts on staff.

When asked if the staffing cuts will affect the number of classes offered to students, Perry said that one factor they considered when making the staffing reductions was if they had under-enrolled courses.

"This allows us to streamline our course offerings, and through rotations and collaborative planning across departments, we will ensure that our students get the courses they need to graduate in a timely manner. We will take the changes we have made into consideration when we build the schedule of available courses for Fall 2024," Perry said.

The staffing cuts will not change Marietta College's commitment to student programming and services or funding of financial aid support for students, Perry said.

"Our students are always our No. 1 priority, and we know that change can be difficult. Some of our students may have developed close bonds with employees who will, eventually, no longer be employed at the College, and they may be disappointed that we have made these decisions," Perry said of the cuts' effect on students.

During that meeting, Druogivch noted that while the number of students at the college has remained stable over the last six years, net revenue from tuition and fees has declined as the college invested more in financial aid to help students with affordability and employee-related compensation expenses has also growth over this period, according to the release.

The cuts, when combined with the Academic Program Review, will help to establish a more sustainable financial base for Marietta's future operations and will be important as the college implements the Marietta Forward strategic plan, Drugovich said in the release.

There is an anticipated significant drop in college-going students over the next 10 years, so it is vitally important that the college remain flexible, creative, open to change,and very disciplined about the evaluation of programs so that it can support programs' success on an ongoing basis, she said.

"The success of the college over these last 190 years was only possible because Marietta continued to adapt to changing circumstances. Continued success requires continuous adaptation," Drugovich said.

Perry said the school has not shared the names of those being eliminated or the departments they work in. He emphasized that the changes in staffing do not eliminate any academic programs and they impact majors across the curriculum.

"Changes that impact well-regarded colleagues are difficult. We are very grateful for their many contributions to the College," Drugovich said about the employees being cut.

Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsandsentinel.com