Beloit College announces job cuts
BELOIT — Beloit College announced Friday afternoon it will eliminate up to 40 positions, some by the end of this year.
Beloit College is “not immune from the economic problems facing our country,” the College’s interim president, Dick Niemiec, said in a news release.
The “employee reduction program” was announced at a campus wide meeting today and in a letter sent to employees.
The job cuts—nearly 10 percent of the campus workforce of 425—will fall into two phases.
In the first phase, the college is asking those who are contemplating resignation or retirement on or before May 31, 2009, to identify themselves.
“The number of people who choose to leave voluntarily at the end of the fiscal year will reduce the number of positions that will need to be eliminated in the second phase,” according to the news release.
The second-phase positions will be eliminated at the end of this calendar year.
Niemiec told employees two weeks ago that the college was facing $1 million shortfall, according to the news release.
The shortfall comes mainly from the fact that the college has 36 fewer students this fall than it budgeted for, said spokesman Ron Nief.
Some students graduated earlier than usual while others who had committed to come to Beloit College did not, Nief said.
Both of those factors likely were a result of economic difficulties of the students’ families, Nief said.
The college usually does a good job of predicting the enrollment, “but the economy has just thrown everything a little bit crazy,” Nief said.
Niemiec said the college’s difficulties do not constitute a crisis, and he does do not believe the college will have to sacrifice the quality of the educational experience.
Nief said the job losses would come mostly from non-teaching positions, but some faculty would be included, and the administration has set up a task force to deal with that issue.
The college has a budget of approximately $55 million, about three-quarters of which comes from tuition, according to the news release. About $2.3 million comes from fundraising. Another $2.5 million is drawn from the endowment. The rest comes from room, board and miscellaneous sources.
“We must set the college on a strong course for the future as we prepare for the arrival of the new president in the coming year,” Niemiec said. “We know what is facing all higher education in this country. Demographic trends show fewer college-age students than in the previous decade. A less affluent but more diverse student body, while academically qualified for Beloit, will need more financial assistance. Because of fluctuations in the value of our investments, payouts from our permanent funds are likely to be lower in the coming years.”
Cost reductions, salary savings and spending restrictions already have been identified amounting to $750,000, and there is a moratorium on hiring on campus, Niemiec said.
“Offices have been asked to identify ways to work with established staff to cover responsibilities and to make adjustments in individual duties.
“Our next step is the difficult decision to pursue an employee reduction program, according to the news release. In order to achieve a balanced operating budget in light of enrollment projections, the college needs to eliminate approximately 40 positions.”
Dec 3, 2008 at 8:26 p.m.
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I think Beloit College is a fine institution. They're handling this crisis far better than, say, GM. At least they are not ignoring present realities in hopes for brighter days.
Nov 10, 2008 at 10:52 p.m.
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If you work at Beloit College 40+ hours a week and make less than $25,000, I think it would be good advice to get out now. I work at Woodman's and at 21, I should be getting about 35,000 this year. Included are 2 weeks paid vacation, benefits, profit sharing, etc. It's hard work and with the scheduling you lack any kind of social life, but I figure work hard now and socialize later. We're pretty recession proof since people need to eat, and because the world is full of slackers thinking working for us is easy half of the new hires don't even stay until probabtion end so we always have openings.
Nov 10, 2008 at 9:21 p.m.
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I'm sure many employees at Beloit College are paid less than $25,000 a year. I know for a fact that 8 years ago they finally raised some of the staff's salary to $8 an hour.
I wish all the best to the great people of Beloit College!
Nov 9, 2008 at 10:58 p.m.
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After further investigation into the cost of the new building in which I was refering to in my first post, BC admits on their website it was a 37 million dollar project that just opened last month. Ironic how BC has degrees in mathematics but yet they have no idea you shouldn't spend money you don't have. I will never buy into the garbage of "nobody could have predicted the economy would pan out like this." Maybe they should have consulted one of their History or Sociolgy students about the theory of "Worst Case Senerio."
I'm still puzzeled by the 1 million dollar shortfall they are claiming in which their solution is up to 40 job cuts. 1 million divided into 40 is 25,000. I'm just a petty liquor store clerk and I make more than that in a year. I would estimate they are looking to shave off over 3-4million in salary cuts. Still sounds shady to me.
Nov 9, 2008 at 8:55 a.m.
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I would be curious to know what tuition rates have been since 1998. My guess is that tuition rates have increased at a rate higher than inflation every year for the past 10 years. I would also guess that enrollment rates over those same 10 years have not varied more than 10% year over year.
Nov 8, 2008 at 11:52 p.m.
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I see Beloit College is so willing to blame the drop in student attendence as the cause for their financial problems. Funny how it was never brought up about the possible millions they have spent on their construction that has been going on for more than a year. Someone might actually want to take a subjective look at that. They added a huge building/overhead walkway that used to be a road to the college and when I passed by last week I saw they were tearing down an old building. I notice they are in search of a President for the college. I'd like to trow my name in the hat for that job. I'd be fine working for 50k a year which is probably about 200k less then previous Presidents have been paid.
I have a little inside knowledge of the operations work there since I was a summer employee for a year and my father has been working there as well for almost 25 years. So tell you're financial woes to someone else, you're not fooling me BC.
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