Opinion: Hampshire College Pay Cuts, Layoffs, Not So Transparent

This column appeared previously in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

We wish to correct several misleading statements published in two recent articles about cuts to employee compensation and layoffs at Hampshire College: “Hampshire College to cut benefits as enrollment for next school year comes in below projections”  (June 19) and “Hampshire College cuts 29 jobs in effort to save $2.7M in expenses” (July 3).

The June 19 article states that the administration’s decision to “temporarily freeze retirement contributions for all employees” was made in response to “fall enrollment numbers that are lower than anticipated.” In fact, evidence suggests that other factors played a more important role in the administration’s decision to cut employee compensation. These include, significantly, overspending on the order of $1.4 million last year. The $1.4 million in overspending was discussed by senior administration in January 2024: five full months in advance of June 1, the date on which, this year, fall enrollment numbers were known. The administration informed the faculty, along with the rest of the college community, of the $1.4 million in overspending on May 7, 2024: almost five months after the administration became aware of the overspending and three full weeks before the June 1 deposit date. On May 7, the administration also informed the community of their intention to address the overspending by cutting retirement benefits.

The timing of the administration’s decision to cut employee compensation by cutting benefits, which was announced to the college community well before fall 2024 student numbers were known, and which was prepared over several months before it was announced, strongly suggests that student numbers were not the driving factor behind this decision and that poor budget management played a larger role.

The July 3 article states that staff layoffs were made with a view, in part, to “prioritizing the core academic program.” In fact, the Division of Academic Affairs (in which the academic program is housed, including all academic units, all aspects of teaching and advising, and the library) was disproportionately hard hit. The average rate of layoffs at the college has been reported as 9% of all employees and 13% of all staff. The rate of layoffs in Academic Affairs was significantly higher: 24% of staff.

Staff layoffs impacting Academic Affairs at a rate more than double that of layoffs in other divisions cannot accurately be described as “prioritizing” the academic program. The July 3 article also states that layoffs will not involve “changing the academic program.” It is practically impossible that 24% of staff could be laid off in a division without its affecting that division’s ability to deliver its core programs.

Finally, both the June 19 and July 3 articles state that senior administrative salaries will be cut. This statement requires further context. First, senior administrative salaries were increased in the 2022-23 fiscal year, when the college was running a deficit. This was the same year that faculty saw a de facto compensation cut when the administration made the decision to increase our teaching load without increasing our salary and without a compensating decrease in other teaching and advising responsibilities. In May 2024, in response to President Wingenbach’s announcement of his plan to balance the budget by cutting compensation still further, Hampshire faculty demanded that senior administration agree to across-the-board salary reductions for all senior administrators, at a set percentage, before considering cuts to benefits that would impact all employees at the college. Senior administration did not agree to this demand.

We, as faculty at Hampshire College, an experimenting institution known for its creative and intensive student-led curriculum, are deeply dedicated to our students and to the unique academic program that brings all of us to Hampshire. We believe passionately in the college’s future, which can only be assured by a commitment to the future of its employees.

Given this fundamental connection between the care, support, respect, and trust an institution extends to its employees and that institution’s future, the nature of the administration’s decision to address a budget crisis, created in part through their own poor budget management, by cutting employee compensation and pursuing aggressive staff layoffs is truly alarming. At a time when the college is hiring significant numbers of new faculty, these decisions come across as particularly cynical, deceitful, and unethical. For they are a blatant disinvestment in new faculty’s future.

The way these decisions were made, in secrecy, without involving faculty and key staff constituencies, in violation of principles of shared governance, and employing tactics of stonewalling and withholding information from the entire college community, suggests that the current administration shares neither our dedication to Hampshire, our students, our staff and faculty colleagues, and the larger community nor our passionate belief in the college’s future. Our dedication to the college community and our belief in Hampshire’s future are what motivate us to be as accurate and transparent as possible about the facts.

Jennifer Bajorek is chair of the Executive Committee of the Faculty, Hampshire College and writing on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Faculty, Hampshire College Leadership Team, Hampshire College Advocacy Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).