*Correction: This article previously stated that 21 employees were being laid off. The accurate total number of layoffs is 18, according to information from the Chancellor’s Office. See more here.
Last Wednesday, faculty and staff at the College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (CAHSS) were notified of a plan that will drastically impact the lives of employees and students at this university.
And, just like every other initiative our administration has pursued in the last year, this plan displays an utter disregard for community members and shows yet again that we have leadership who value their salaries more than they value the quality of life of those who call this university home.
In CAHSS, departments consist most obviously of the professors who educate us, but also of assistants who do an array of student-facing tasks. They help us register for class, they disseminate career opportunities and internships and aid our overworked professors in completing tasks that they cannot do themselves. All of this is on top of numerous other underappreciated responsibilities.
All in all, these staff members heavily contribute to creating a fulfilling and inviting environment for students and faculty, despite the negative effects of austerity. They are vital to our community, and we should be grateful for them as students. The faculty, who not only work with these staff members but call them their friends, know more than anyone else what they mean to our community.
There is a cohort on campus, however, who is not appreciative of our staff, and this cohort has failed miserably in not only recognizing their value to the community but also in recognizing their value as human beings. That cohort is our administration.
To be clear, the most recent initiative consists of firing these departmental staff members and offering them the opportunity to apply for a centralized role in CAHSS. Eighteen of these staff members are being laid off, with three of them being told that they will not be able to apply for these new roles. These 15 new positions are also open to outside applicants, meaning that there is no guarantee that these 15 jobs will go to those who have been laid off.
All of this is taking place because, allegedly, we are experiencing a budgetary crisis. Our school is currently running a deficit, and as a result, admin has cut funding for an array of student services such as the food pantry, the innovation labs and DU EMS. These staff firings are a new addition to this trend, and one of the more abhorrent actions they have taken, especially when taking into account a statement that Chancellor Jeremy Haefner made at a budget town hall on Tuesday, the day before the staff layoffs were made public.
At one point during the town hall, a person asked the question of whether or not those in the administrative office would take pay cuts as a result of this budgetary crisis. Chancellor Haefner then asserted that “you can’t cut your way to success.”
It is hard to tell what aspect of this statement is more infuriating. Is it the blatant and egotistical selfishness of thinking you are really worth over one million dollars to this community, or is it the disgusting hypocrisy of saying such a thing and then throwing those who mean more to students in the trash the very next day?
The Clarion asked the Chancellor’s Office for a statement, for which they stated, “the University will undergo a relatively small number of layoffs.”
To them, this might be a small number, but that is only because they probably don’t even know their names.
For the departments these staff members belong to, there will be a missing friend, a missing colleague, every morning our professors clock in for work. For students, there will be one less friendly face we get to interact with when we go to office hours. There is nothing “relatively small” about that at all.
When it comes to the money this will save our school, however, the notion of “relatively small” starts to make a lot of sense, especially when put into contrast with the total compensation our administrators receive.
According to the university’s 2022 IRS990 report that was obtained by a faculty member— the latest available — the Chancellor and Provost cabinets took home around $7.8 million. Meanwhile, the new job listings that staff members are having to apply for have a salary range of $50k-$60k, which is about the same salary that the staff members were making before.
When taking into account that in CAHSS there will be 6 fewer positions available than there were before this decision was made, the school is saving around $300k-$360k. This is a very rough estimate, but this rough estimate shows that a 4% pay cut distributed across the administrative offices would be more than enough for these community members to keep their jobs. And that’s not even factoring in the additional administrative positions that have opened up since 2022, with some of the salaries exceeding $400k. All in all, there are 17 vice chancellors at this institution, all of which make over $250K annually.
The reality, however, is that this measure will likely save no money at all this year. That is due to the cost of creating these new positions along with the severance packages that will be dealt out to those being laid off.
In a way, Haefner lied to all of us that Tuesday afternoon. He does believe you can cut your way to success, as long as those cuts don’t touch his salary. Meanwhile, the rest of this campus understands his statement in a very different way.
We are the ones who have to deal with these cuts. Our staff members are the ones who are having to scramble and fight for new jobs while saying their goodbyes. Our professors are becoming increasingly overworked and stressed, while we as students are having to fork out more and more money each year. There are community members who are struggling to find enough food to eat at night, while the university becomes increasingly dependent on student exploitation through work-study programs that are replacing staff roles.
We know you can’t cut your way to success, but we know this fact because we as a community are actually dealing with cuts. They diminish our collective standard of living and push our creativity to its breaking point as we try to adapt. We know what Haefner’s statement means, and unlike him, we are going to have to fight together to make sure that we don’t cut our way to collapse.
If you or anyone you know is frustrated by this decision made on our behalf and without our consent, email boardoftrustees@du.edu and voice your concerns. If you have never had the opportunity to show your appreciation for our staff members, this is a way in which you can do so.
