After failing to meet its anticipated undergraduate enrollment target last fall and struggling to balance its budget, Carroll University, located in Waukesha, has decided to eliminate 14 staff positions and two faculty positions.
News of the eliminations reached the campus community on Monday in a letter from President Doug Hastad, who wrote: “We are implementing actions to reduce our expenses for the upcoming fiscal year. Unfortunately, this includes eliminating positions. You should know that those individuals affected have been informed. While it is not easy to say goodbye to colleagues, it is a necessary step in rebalancing the budget. We will also be reducing non-personnel expenses as part of the realignment process.”
The cuts in staff, which will be effective at the end of the current fiscal year on June 30, represent a 2.5 percent reduction in staff. The two faculty eliminations will take effect at the end of the next fiscal year on June 30, 2015.
The university opted to trim its staff and faculty to avoid imposing a severe tuition increase on Carroll students and families, said Jeannine Sherman, director of communications and marketing.
“It was very important for us to maintain affordability,” Sherman said. “We know it’s a financial challenge for students today and their parents to obtain a good education.”
Tuition rates for full-time undergraduate students enrolling in the 2014-15 school year are set for $27,850, up 3 percent from rates during the current school year.
“This is one of the lowest increases in recent memory,” Sherman said.
The university has not experienced a dip in its enrollment rate like the one this past fall in 19 years, according to Sherman.
But it is far from the only liberal arts school plagued by enrollment and budget struggles, she said, as many peer institutions across the country have been struck by similar challenges.
“I think all of us are finding creative ways to address that challenge of attracting students and remaining competitive in our programming,” Sherman said.
Part of Carroll’s solution lies in analyzing how it can leverage its top programs to draw more students.
“It’s looking at, ‘Where are the demand areas? Where are the growth areas? How can we take advantage of those?'” Sherman said.
The eliminations of staff and faculty are part of the university’s efforts to approach the future in a “responsible” and sustainable way, but the campus community is very sensitive to the loss of employees, Sherman said.
“We need to look at this as a rebalancing and a moving forward while being very sensitive to the people who will no longer be with us,” she said.
