From Monica DeHart, Nancy Bristow, Robin Jacobson, and Siddharth Ramakrishnan; all are previous members of the AAAPRC.
In the hopes of clarifying the work and recommendations of the AAAPRC, we would note that our committee was charged with closing the university’s $10 million deficit by Fiscal Year 2025. Therefore, our recommendations to reduce 35 FTE faculty and consolidate programs were in response to that call, rather than an independent finding about what would be good for the health of our liberal arts institution. That proposal sought both to help bridge the financial gap and continue to provide students a broad, interdisciplinary liberal arts experience with minimal curricular disruption. The AAAPRC recommended that those cuts be made mostly through retirement attrition, rather than through program elimination, which the President’s alternative plan proposes. Finally, the recommendation to cut faculty FTE reflects the fact that the committee was prohibited from exploring other means of closing the deficit, such as evaluating Executive (high-level university administrative leaders) structure and compensation.