By Arpan Josan

The day before this semester began, 42 full-time, non-union Adelphi employees were laid off from several departments including the Division of Student Affairs, the Center for Student and Community Engagement, the Student Counseling Center and Admissions. Some had been with the university for over 20 years. In an email sent to faculty on Jan. 23, Michael Rhattigan, vice president of finance, said the decision resulted from a budget cut that executive leadership had to make due to struggles that stem from reduced student enrollment. In the Jan. 24 Provost’s Weekly Update, Provost and Executive Vice President Christopher Storm wrote that these struggles in part reflect the post-COVID financial forces that have affected many institutions across the country and that they were needed to address both revenue declines and unexpectedly high medical expenses.

Rhattigan said in his statement: “This has been a challenging week for the Adelphi community. After much thoughtful deliberation and given our fiduciary responsibility to balance the budget, executive leadership has made the difficult decision to eliminate the positions of 42 full-time Adelphi employees. We recognize the important contributions of our colleagues, and we are providing them with resources and support.”

He further stated that “our institutional priority continues to be ensuring Adelphi’s long-term stability so that we can serve students and the community for years to come despite the current challenges of rising operational costs, economic uncertainty and demographic changes that are impacting many institutions of higher education like Adelphi. This action will provide us with the necessary agility to refocus our efforts on Adelphi’s long-term viability and rising academic excellence. Adelphi now has an opportunity to redouble its commitment to our mission and the strategic goals of Momentum 2.”

Taylor Damian, the director of media relations, said in an email to The Delphian that Momentum 2 is the university’s current five-year strategic plan, also referred to as M2. It prioritizes Adelphi’s mission, people and resources with three goals: academic distinction, an inclusive and connected community, and smart growth and infrastructure. (Learn more about M2 at https://www.adelphi.edu/strategic-plan/.)

Damian also explained that the employees who were let go have received support from the university, which included severance packages; they are eligible to apply for unemployment benefits. Some are even working with Adelphi to move into a part-time position rather than staying as a full-time member.

In his email, Rhattigan concluded that no additional layoffs are planned at this time. “As we continue to move forward in a rapidly changing higher education environment, it is important that we aim to collectively understand the landscape and Adelphi’s long-term vision,” he said.

At a Feb. 5 full faculty meeting, leadership discussed the workforce decision and the university’s long-term vision in detail and addressed faculty questions and concerns. Rhattigan emphasized that the employees were not let go for cause and that decisions were made to minimize the impact on others.

Though she wasn’t able to attend the faculty meeting, Peggy Cassidy, a communications professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, shared her concerns via an email interview with The Delphian about how the layoffs might affect the quality of services offered at Adelphi. She said that cuts in offices that directly serve students could cause “remaining staff to be stretched too thin to give students the kind of support that we take pride in pointing to as a great strength of Adelphi.”

Cassidy said she is also concerned that the layoffs have put in jeopardy the future of the fall semester Freedom of Expression Symposium for which she was working in active collaboration with one of the deans affected.

“A symposium like this is a lot of work to organize and I am not aware of anyone else taking on this project,” Cassidy said. “I launched a new course in fall 2024 called ‘Let's Talk About It: Free Speech, Interpersonal Communication, and Campus Conversations,’ which was tied to the Symposium. The plan was for me and [the former dean] to team teach the course in fall 2025 and to develop additional programming related to campus expression and civil dialogue. But now all of those plans have been cancelled. This was exciting and important work, so it's disappointing to have it come to a halt.”

At press time, Anna Zinko, the assistant vice president for student affairs, confirmed that this event will indeed be continuing. No further details were available.

Cassidy acknowledged that Adelphi is hardly alone in experiencing financial challenges as other US colleges and universities are also grappling with a complex set of factors that are hitting us all at once.

“COVID is one of those factors. So are the declining enrollments due to lower birth rates around 20 years ago that have resulted in fewer people of traditional college age now (the so-called `enrollment cliff’),” she said. “College is unaffordable for too many American families, international students are exploring options in countries other than the US, and some US political leaders are portraying universities as the ‘enemy.’ It's a very complicated and unstable time for higher education, so what we are experiencing is by no means unique. Almost everyone I know at other institutions in the Tri-State area (and beyond) is going through something very similar.”

The Delphian’s Instagram story conducted a poll to better understand how this has impacted Adelphi students. Club eBoard members said they were not made aware of these developments and received no advance communication on these budget cuts, in one case finding out that their liaison for the Center for Student and Community Engagement was gone only when emails weren’t being answered and he followed up with their boss. These budget cuts also have affected on-campus student jobs as 67% voted yes to the cuts affecting their workplaces in that their bosses were among those laid off.

A student worker at the Office of University Admissions, who requested to remain anonymous, shared their experience having abruptly lost a colleague. “As a student worker, it is disheartening to see colleagues and even bosses leaving Adelphi,” they said. “The lack of transparency from the university is incredibly frustrating as these cuts were unexpected and make us wonder what we’re paying for. It’s very upsetting to find out without warning that someone you worked closely with will no longer be working with you. These actions not only affect student workers, but every Adelphi student as we see tuition increasing for no real reason. It makes me question the value of the education I am receiving if academic departments have been hit with these cuts.”