The University of Denver has broken my trust, and I’m not the only one who feels this way. 

When I accepted my offer to DU in 2022, I believed I was investing in my future. The years I had spent saving, from working during the school year to juggling multiple jobs in the summer, were worth every cent in my eyes. 

Receiving an email on Oct. 15, 2024, from the Office of Provost stating tuition was yet again increasing to sustain my “top-quality learning experiences,” followed by the reduction of staff in CAHSS, felt like a punch in the gut. How can the Office of Provost claim to give its students a quality learning experience when their actions directly contradict this? 

“When I applied to the university it was because I wanted an intimate education,” said Chloe Smith, a third-year Philosophy major. “Now the University is planning on increasing classroom sizes, and students like me will no longer be able to receive the education that was promised.” 

The budget deficit that CAHSS is facing will impact students and faculty alike. As these staff positions leave their departments, the work they did remains, leaving stressed professors with a longer list or responsibilities. 

Already overworked and underpaid, professors will be forced to adjust to the extra work while receiving no additional compensation. The time professors must allocate to fill these roles will ultimately lead to the sacrifice of energy spent on students and research. 

Increased class sizes, longer waitlists, difficulty completing majors and minors due to fewer courses being offered and program closures are all possible and predicted outcomes of cuts. However, a lack of transparency has left students and staff in the dark. 

The following interviews were conducted with two professors in the CAHSS department. Both have asked to remain anonymous to protect their positions at the university. 

“The reality is [we are in] a state of confusion.” said one anonymous CAHSS professor. “You feel like you have less power, and that is very problematic in a work environment where you are also teaching, leading and mentoring.” 

Adding to the mistrust staff has towards the Chancellor and Provost is how the layoffs in the previous fall quarter were handled. 

Another CAHSS professor described how the faculty were under the assumption that laid-off individuals would have the rest of the academic year to find jobs. This was after CAHSS negotiated these terms with the Office of Provost during the previous spring quarter. However, staff were not given the rest of the year and were instead laid off directly before the winter quarter. 

“In my mind, it was completely strategic,” said the second professor.  “They reneged on an agreement in order to make a strategic decision to make it difficult for faculty and students to organize right before the break, hoping that people would come back and forget or be more fragmented,” said the same professor.

The enrollment cliff that colleges across the U.S. are suffering from is the leading cause of DU’s deficit. However, institutions within CO such as CU Boulder, Mines and CSU are experiencing increases in enrollment. So why is DU failing?

“Somebody has to take ownership of the mistake, if we were not prepared for a cliff we knew was coming for a decade,” said Professor 2. “Everybody knew this was happening, why are we not prepared, what went wrong?” 

The enrollment cliff is not the issue here, it’s the lack of leadership from Chancellor Haefner and Provost. For a decade the university knew this was coming. Instead of saving money they outspent, making a losing bet that their frivolous investments would attract prospective students. 

I can’t trust an institution that gambles on the livelihoods and futures of their staff and students, and neither should you.