Here are jobs and programs UNH is eliminating in $14M cuts: 'The mood is very somber'
DURHAM — Wellness and information technology workers, the campus art museum and dozens of school staff members have been eliminated as part of the University of New Hampshire’s planned $14 million in cuts coming amid declining undergraduate enrollment.
UNH President James Dean announced on Jan. 16 roughly 75 employees were being laid off as a result of a “budget reset,” which the school first notified its community about last October. At that time, Dean called on the school’s unit leaders to adjust their current fiscal year budgets so the university could cut back on its anticipated expenses by 4%.
The six dozen-plus employees being laid off this winter were given 45 days notice last week. Those directly affected will receive severance pay, health insurance continuation and access to job placement services, according to Dean.
Previous story: UNH laying off 75 employees in 'budget reset.' Declining enrollment cited by president.
Art and music jobs, new student programs, intramural sports and more among cuts and reductions
So what exactly is being terminated at the university? The multimillion-dollar budget trimming is having wide-spanning impact.
The university’s Enterprise Technology & Services team was hit with cuts and is redesigning its organization to meet the needs of student, staff and faculty.
“Given that we are beginning a major redesign of these support capabilities, we expect the transition period may not be smooth and request your patience as we rebuild and refine our strategies to best support students, faculty, and staff,” ET&S reported in an email Monday to community members. “This may include increased wait times, response times, and fixed actions given the reduced staff available across ET&S moving forward.”
Impacted by the layoffs to the school’s Health and Wellness clinic is the popular “Paws and Relax” therapy dog program for students and staff.
In an Instagram post, an account created for one of the program’s therapy dogs, Remy, reacted to the layoffs.
“UNH students, sadly Paws and Relax is on hold due to Wellness staff layoff. Hopefully we will be back in the near future. Very sad that the powers who make these decisions are not aware of the helpful mental health pleasure our dogs bring to students and staff. We will let you know when and if we will be requested in the future,” the post states.
The university music department lost a senior program support assistant in the layoffs, one of 12 positions cut from the College of Liberal Arts. Those dozen cuts include the positions eliminated with the closure of the school’s Museum of Art.
An online petition was created on Jan. 19 speaking out against the music department staffer’s termination. The petition, addressed to Dean’s leadership council at the university, had more than 1,000 signatures in support of the staffer as of Tuesday night.
“I have to be honest and say the mood is very somber,” said Rob Haskins, professor and chairperson of the university music department, on Monday. “The students know what’s going on and they’re very disappointed in it. Some of them are probably more than disappointed. The person we lost was not only who did all the scheduling and the public relations. She was the kind of person who was always around to talk to the students. She is a very compassionate person.”
More: Closing of University of New Hampshire's Museum of Art 'leaves giant hole for community'
The organizational structure of the school’s Engagement and Faculty Development, in addition to the Center for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching & Learning, is being eliminated, but the two are being replaced by a smaller group within the provost’s office. Select university research positions were also cut, as were several staff events, some social programs for students, on-campus wellness and sexual health-related fairs, and the Cat Trax bicycle sharing program.
Incoming student programs will also be reduced, as will programming put on by the Aulbani J. Beauregard Center for Equity, Justice and Freedom. Fewer intramural sports will be offered, in addition to less lap swim times at the university pools and group exercise events.
The presidents of two university unions, the UNH chapter of the American Association of University Professors and UNH Lecturers United, have reported that no lecturers or faculty professors are being let go from the institution.
UNH lecturers union prepares for job losses
However, UNH Lecturers United is bracing for possible lecturer cuts during the annual contract renewal process.
Clark Knowles, union president and university English department principal lecturer, said that newer lecturers in their first two to three years of employment will need to be notified by the school by March 1 if they’re not being reappointed for the 2024-25 academic year.
“We will be issuing a letter tomorrow just telling our members that we’re supporting them, that we’re on the lookout for cuts and that we’ll be prepared to go to the mat for them,” Knowles said Monday.
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The two unions will be meeting in the weeks ahead with their respective bargaining unit members and will discuss potential actions to stand in solidarity with the recently affected non-union university staff.
“This has taken a situation where morale was already low and this really exacerbated that in very, very palpable ways,” said Cliff Brown, an associate professor of sociology and president of the American Association of University Professors union at UNH. “As you know, we all pretty much did backflips to get the university through the pandemic and we had very divisive and prolonged contract negotiations during that time that were only resolved in the fall of 2022. ... This latest announcement by the university that we’re going to have to continue working with less resources and fewer colleagues while trying to meet the needs of our students was a huge blow.”
“We want to stand for them because they can’t stand for themselves yet, they’re just individuals against a system,” Knowles added.
Staff members at the university are not unionized. If they were, Knowles projected it would be the single largest union in the state of New Hampshire.
In 2016, as the National Education Association attempted to unionize UNH staff, the school was accused of union-busting after spending $195,000 in unrestricted gifts on a labor law firm to oppose clerical workers' unionization efforts. Mark Huddleston was president of the university at the time.
From 2020: UNH unions, facing layoffs, vow solidarity
The university's then-vice president for finance and administration Christopher Clement penned a message in October 2016 sharing his opinion that union representation for school staff was “unnecessary” and wrote he hoped “the union’s organizing effort will end soon.”
“I think this is going to wake some people up,” Knowles said Monday about this month's university staff cuts.
Undergraduate enrollment between the university’s Durham and Manchester’s campuses has declined steadily since the fall 2018 semester, when there were 13,371 students. By this past fall, the number of undergrads had fallen to 11,716 students.
The Pew Research Center reported in December that in 2022, the number of 18- to 24-year-olds enrolled in American colleges was about 1.2 million less than peak college enrollment figures in 2011.
“Universities across the country are facing intense competition for students combined with rising costs for wages, goods, and services,” Dean wrote in his Jan. 16 email to employees. “We know these challenges will persist in the coming years, and we must act to ensure that UNH is on firm financial footing to weather the challenges ahead.”
The spring semester at UNH began Tuesday.
Dean is scheduled to address the budget cuts and program impacts in a virtual faculty and staff town hall from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Dean and the university’s executive committee will take questions from attendees.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: UNH cuts these jobs, programs in $14M reduction
