Clark University Laying Off up to 30% of Faculty Due to Lower Enrollment
“All of higher education, Clark included, is at a critical inflection point”
The problem of declining enrollment is hitting schools all over the country.
MassLive reports:
Clark University to lay off up to 30% of faculty amid enrollment woes
Clark University in Worcester is planning to lay off up to 30% of faculty and 5% of staff while restructuring degree programs due to enrollment and financial challenges, according to the institution.
“All of higher education, Clark included, is at a critical inflection point,” Clark University President David Fithian said in a statement. “Rather than simply meet this challenging moment as an exercise in budget constraint, we have taken a longer view, leaning into current strengths and what is best about Clark to offer our students an even more compelling experience going forward.”
The announcement comes in part as a reaction to the incoming first-year class not hitting the mark for how many students the institution aims for.
The incoming class is underenrolled by 80 to 100 students, the institution said.
The layoffs come after Worcester Polytechnic Institute laid off 24 employees due to pressures from rising costs and uncertainty regarding the Trump administration’s policies on higher education.
In Massachusetts, over two dozen colleges and universities have closed or merged over the past decade due to financial and enrollment difficulties.
Most recently, Eastern Nazarene College, a private Christian liberal arts college in Quincy, announced in June that it would close due to financial issues. Bard College at Simon’s Rock said in November it would close its campus due to declining enrollment.
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they all seem to be in violation of common sense
“All of higher education, Clark included, is at a critical inflection point”
Western-style higher education is so passé. Instead, embrace the new diversity, strength, and yuuuge profit potential of having become the country’s premier sanctuary city for ultraviolet-haired lesbian transsexuals. You’ll need to invest in some tall rides with flashing lights, and a fair number of giant tents.
Perhaps Clark can re-invent itself as a school for barkers, pickpockets, and ring-toss booth operators.
Worcester it seems is now inhabited by a bunch of freaky nutjobs. Simply amazing. Instead of rounding them up how about we fence them in.
In 1909 Clark University became the only U.S. university at which Sigmund Freud gave lectures (on psychoanalysis). I applied to grad school there in 1968 (but chose another direction).
It was once prestigious…
Clark University is running into the law of reality: charge $80K/year for a Gender Studies and WymXm’s Studies and wonder why people aren’t into that anymore. Perhaps due to THERE BEING NO JOBS IN THOSE FIELDS AND THEY ALL FLIP BURGERS. Sometimes, there just aren’t enough angry non-binary soy soakers and uterus carriers to pay the bills. So sad…