Antioch College enacts budget measures
- Published: December 10, 2016
At a series of meetings with staff, faculty and students on Friday, Antioch College President Tom Manley announced several cost-cutting measures aimed at reducing the college’s overall budget and bringing expenses in line with revenues.
Specifically, the college is cutting pay for executive and senior staff, and reducing its total workforce, largely through attrition and reorganization.
According to a college press release issued Saturday, salary cuts for executive and senior leadership include a 20 percent reduction for the college’s executive team, effective immediately, and a 5 percent cut for employees earning between $70,000 and $120,000, effective January, 2017.
Regarding workforce reductions, the college has trimmed a total of 31 full-time equivalent positions since July, 2015, according to the release. Twelve full-time equivalent positions have been eliminated since November, including five as of last week.
Faculty salaries and positions are not affected by these reductions, according to college spokesperson Mark Reynolds on Friday. Student worker positions and compensation levels are also not affected.
“We do not anticipate further reductions,” Reynolds said.
In Saturday’s press release, President Manley stressed that the college remains viable. “Thanks to the hard work of so many and the remarkable generosity of our alumni donors, the college is succeeding and will continue to succeed,” he said.
After closing in 2008, Antioch College was relaunched in 2009 through an alumni-led effort, and the revived college accepted its first class in 2011.
According to Reynolds on Friday, the college will save a total of more than $1 million annually through the announced cost-cutting measures. The reductions reflect over a year of work toward a leaner budget of $15.5 million for 2017, down from the original projection of $22.8 million, Reynolds said. A variety of previous measures, including restructuring debt and renegotiating insurance packages, helped lower the college’s overall budget.
Other cost-cutting measures specified in Saturday’s press release include a hiring freeze, a voluntary workweek reduction program, a freeze on professional development funds, a consolidation of dining programs into one facility, possible consolidation of residence halls (currently under consideration) and, where possible, the consolidation of accounting, fundraising and other functions across the college.
Read the Dec. 15 edition of the News for a more in-depth story.
4 Responses to “Antioch College enacts budget measures”
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Hi Dave,
Thanks for reading and commenting. The Dec. 15 follow-up article has those details, and more context on the cuts. The paper is for sale at the News office; the article will also be available online this Thursday, Dec. 22.
Best,
Audrey
You have to be kidding, right?! This article suggests that there are several executive positions that pay over $120,000 a year, and so we should ask who exactly are those persons and what are those positions?
Two points:
First, Antioch is not facing a $7 million deficit. The College has taken several actions in the last 18 months to bring its budget and resources in better alignment.
Secondly, the actions announced last week reflect the challenges inherent in building a college in the 21st Century. But they are not insurmountable challenges, and Antioch’s leadership is committed to facing them responsibly, and crafting responses which will allow the College to continue its remarkable rebirth well into the future.
Merry Christmas from Antioch College to those who lost their jobs last week. Despite the information that Antioch College is heading in the right direction, this obviously can’t be true considering last weeks sobering truth surrounding the budget. There is no rosy picture for Antioch otherwise all these budget cuts and such would not be happening. There is very little income (tuition) coming in and retention of students, faculty and staff is horrible. I personally do not see Antioch surviving through the Fall of 2018 if not sooner. I appreciate the efforts of senior administration taking 20% pay cuts and others as well. However, a $1 million savings will not cover the $7 million deficit.