Recently, there was talk around campus about the possibility of recent layoffs happening. There were several rumors about as many as 50 staff members that had lost their job due to the budget cuts but that number turned out to be false.
According to President Neil Salonen, only nine administrative faculty members received the notification on November 5 and 6 regarding the matter. He said that the layoffs were made due in regards to a few factors.
“For us, it had to do with [the number of] international graduate students and if they heard that there are no jobs here [in the NYC region], then [the process will] slow down a little bit [when deciding to come to UB],” Salonen said. “We had a small dip in enrollment, which meant to me that we should reduce expenses.”
This round of layoffs, which didn’t include fulltime and adjunct professors, was the first that occurred since the end of 2008, when 13 administrative staff members received the pink slip. Salonen would not state the identity of the people who were affected by this or the specific department they worked in.
“I am not causal about it [layoffs] and I try to do other things first but for me, students [always] come first, faculty second and staff is clearly third,” he said. “I don’t cut anything related to students and if anything increase something like financial aid and faculty who teach the students.”
UB, who experienced a 6.8 percentage decline this fall semester in enrollment, is not the only local university feeling the effect, which has led to some changes. According to a recent story written by Connecticut Post, institutions such as Southern Connecticut State University (3.6 % drop off) Fairfield University (3.7 %), and Housatonic Community College (3.6 %) all experienced the drop off in admission.
On the flipside, Lambeck wrote that three UB graduate programs saw a double digit boost which comprised in biomedical engineering, human nutrition and counseling.
Salonen said that the research funds for the professors were not interfered with and that most received raises this year. Currently after the nine layoffs, there are now 286 administrative staff workers and 484 (364 part time and 120 fulltime) faculty members at UB.
“I will always protect the services that it will take to offer students and the support will give to faculty” he said. “This is a minor adjustment in order to maintain rock solid financial help [for the students].”