Bennington College announced in a social media post Friday it was eliminating 15 staff positions as part of the school’s “ongoing efforts to address budget challenges.”
Ashley Jowett, the director of communications at the college, in a statement called the decision “difficult” but “necessary to place the college on a more sustainable financial path” while ensuring the school’s ability to support returning and incoming students.
“This is a painful moment,” the school’s president, Laura Walker, said in the statement. “Like many peer institutions across the country, we are confronting an uncertain economy and a challenging overall environment for higher education. I remain profoundly grateful to the dedicated staff, past and present, who make Bennington such a singular place.”
The college said it was providing severance proposals to affected employees.
The college employs a total of 90 full-time faculty members and 214 full-time staff members, Jowett said.
The announcement comes just months after the college finalized collective bargaining agreements with three groups that make up Bennington College United. The union is backed by AFT Vermont, an umbrella labor union for higher education and health care workers.
Those agreements increased wages and bonuses for staff and faculty members, and guaranteed tuition exchange and benefits for family of staff, according to previous reporting.
Twelve of the 15 staffers were members of the union and performed work at the school in academic services, institutional research and in the college’s business office.
The union in a statement said members were “very concerned about the ability of the reduced workforce to keep the college functioning and to make sure that students receive the services they need to thrive.”
The union said it has requested information related to the decision “and will be requesting a meeting to discuss alternatives to the layoffs.”
