Temple lays off 50 employees to cope with budget crunch
The layoffs are part of 190 positions that were eliminated with the rest coming through attrition, retirements and elimination of vacant spots.
Temple University is laying off 50 employees as part of a plan to reduce a projected deficit for the current fiscal year, President John Fry said in a message to the campus community Friday.
The layoffs represent less than 1% of the university’s total workforce, Fry said.
“Decisions like this are not easy, and they are not made lightly,” Fry said. “It is my promise that care will be taken to ensure that any employee’s separation from the university will be handled as equitably and compassionately as possible.”
» READ MORE: As Temple projects its first enrollment increase since 2017, board approves tuition hike
Fry did not provide details on what positions would be eliminated or employees impacted, but no faculty were among those laid off.
Multiple high level administrators in athletics were impacted including Scott Walcoff, senior associate athletic director for external operations, who posted about it on Facebook.
“As part of typical HR protocol, I was wished well in my future endeavors, told to leave within 15 minutes, and to come back after hours to clean out my office,” he wrote.
But he also professed his love for Temple and cited many of the highlights of his time there.
“I am confident that Temple will be successful in the future,” he wrote. “We have a wonderful new university president and a dedicated group of staff, coaches and student-athletes...”
University officials said last month that layoffs would occur as part of the belt tightening, but Fry disclosed the number for the first time Friday.
The layoffs are part of 190 positions that were eliminated with the rest coming through attrition, retirements and elimination of vacant spots, Fry said.
Through the position elimination, the projected deficit for 2025-26 has been reduced from $60 million to $27 million, Fry said.
» READ MORE: Temple president targets safety, neighborhood improvements and fundraising for early attention in his tenure
Temple isn’t the only school to resort to layoffs. Drexel University in November announced it was laying off 60 professional staff employees to ease a budget crunch.
Temple’s enrollment has declined by about 10,000 students since its high in 2017 of more than 40,000 students, but the university is projecting another big boost in its first-year class and an overall enrollment increase for the first time since 2017.
Fry also announced that the university would end its controversial “responsibility center management” budget model, a decentralized system that has been in place for over a decade and is designed to give individual units more control over revenue and expenses. Faculty have long complained about the the model, including concern that the quality of courses sometimes suffered as faculty were forced to teach courses to meet tuition targets.
Fry agreed to conduct a review when he became president in November and found concerns were valid.
“The review process has shown that the RCM model has limited our ability to advance institutional priorities, in some cases has impeded collaboration and it does not effectively align resources with our long-term goals,” Fry said.
The university will develop a new budget model for roll out next July, he said.