Tenured faculty may be cut at St. Norbert
DE PERE — St. Norbert College's financial situation is more serious than it has let on to the public.
President Laurie Joyner presented a plan to the Board of Trustees on May 13 that would allow the college to cut tenured faculty — a move that is only used when there is a deterioration of the college's financial stability or a need to discontinue programs due to financial reasons, according to the faculty handbook.
In a presentation to staff and faculty in March, Joyner cited both as grounds to move forward with the process, known as retrenchment.
At St. Norbert, tenure is granted to full-time faculty who, after so many years of teaching, demonstrate their accomplishments in academic preparation, teaching, scholarship and service, according to the faculty handbook. The process requires a lengthy application but, if granted, provides faculty with protections from layoffs, except in specific circumstances such as retrenchment.
Calling the move “prudent,” Joyner said it's the responsible thing to do.
“It will give us greater agility to be able to move more quickly, and I think that that's really essential, not just at St. Norbert College, but really across higher education,” she said. “So I think it's ethically the right thing to do.”
She isn't aware of whether the college has ever done the retrenchment process before, though Joyner is less than a year into her time at the institution.
In her plan, Joyner did not cite how many tenured faculty could be cut or the overall reduction in workforce needed to rightsize the institution because she doesn't know, she said in an interview.
It largely depends on enrollment, she said.
“I don't think we know. I don't think anybody can answer that question because we're in like a dynamic situation in the whole sector,” Joyner said.
How did St. Norbert College get here?
The first public signal of the college's financial troubles was in September when it announced 41 layoffs of non-tenured faculty and staff, citing declining enrollment.
The college has since said the number was 35, but has provided no explanation for the discrepancy. In all, 82 positions were affected at that time, including 32 open positions, according to Joyner's March presentation to faculty obtained by the Press-Gazette.
In March, the college announced another 12 layoffs affecting only nontenured faculty as it shored up a $5 million deficit projected for fiscal year 2025. But according to Joyner’s presentation later that month, three open and 18 filled positions were cut.
In an interview, Joyner was not able to answer which numbers were correct.
In that same presentation, Joyner outlined future deficits of $4.2 million starting in fiscal year 2026, growing to $9 million in 2028. In August, those deficits were sitting at $15 million in 2026 and then $18 million in 2027. St. Norbert’s operating budget for next year is $70 million.
This fiscal year, the college ran into “severe liquidity issues,” as stated in Joyner’s March faculty presentation. The school breached its bond debt service coverage ratio and plans to review it again at the end of the month.
Ultimately, a decline in enrollment without a commensurate reduction in expenses has led St. Norbert to its current situation. In fall 2018, the college had 2,099 undergraduate students. By fall 2023, that had dropped to 1,749, a 17% decrease, according to Joyner’s presentation.
At the same time, staffing levels did not decrease.
In fall 2022, there were 516 full-time equivalent faculty and staff members. In 2018, there were 510. By fall 2023, before layoffs were announced, there were 504 FTE staff and faculty.
As of the spring semester, the faculty raw headcount was 126, with 92% either tenured or on the tenure track, according to Joyner’s presentation.
Despite tuition increases, the college still saw a 19% decrease in undergraduate and graduate student net tuition fee revenue over the last five years. The amount of unfunded aid the college provided to students also increased by $6 million, which effectively translated to discounted tuition for those students who received aid or scholarships.
Private colleges like St. Norbert rely heavily on tuition dollars since they don’t receive state funding like Wisconsin’s public universities do. Even a relatively small dip in enrollment can cause financial trouble.
St. Norbert is not alone. Last April, Cardinal Stritch University, a private Catholic school near Milwaukee, announced it was closing at the end of the semester due to declining enrollment.
Marquette University, another Milwaukee four-year-private school, is looking to cut $31 million, or 7%, from its budget over the next seven years. In the short term, Marquette wants to cut $11 million by the 2025-26 academic year.
Northland College in Ashland narrowly avoided closure at the end of this academic year with a last ditch restructuring.
In September, Joyner told the PressGazette that St. Norbert was financially “fundamentally solid.”
She holds to that. “Compared to most, we’re financially sound in the sense that if you look at our balance sheet, it’s like really strong. If you look at our debt, it’s really low. If you look at our endowment, it’s relatively healthy,” she said.
Those are all separate from the school’s operating budget, though, which is where the financial strain lies.
When did the St. Norbert College know about its financial situation?
Seeing that enrollment and tuition revenue had been declining since 2018, it’s unclear why action was not taken sooner to address the college’s finances. According to Joyner, the full college wasn’t aware of the scope of the structural deficits until she showed them, saying people were surprised and shocked. Did Joyner speak with her senior administration about why rightsizing wasn’t addressed more proactively? No, she said. “I think my job is to focus on the
future, and my job is to make sure that the performance of my team speaks for itself and that we are doing all the right things,” Joynes said. “... I trust that whoever was here was doing the best that they could and making the best decisions based on what they thought the situation was.”
It wasn’t until last summer, when Joyner joined, that faculty became aware of the seriousness of St. Norbert’s situation, according to Thomas Bolin, a professor of theology and religious studies. He’s been with the college for 22 years and also serves as the president of the college’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
In his over two decades at the college, retrenchment and the possibility of cutting tenured faculty has never come up.
How has the faculty responded to possibly cutting tenured faculty?
The faculty presented its own retrenchment plan alongside Joyner at the May 13 Board of Trustees meeting.
The faculty’s presentation to the board, obtained by the Press-Gazette, agreed that there is a deterioration of the financial stability of the college and a need to restructure.
The presentation said faculty also agreed with leadership’s recommendation to pause travel without prior approval of the vice president and president as well as requiring approval for overload teaching and stipends.
A point of disagreement in the faculty presentation were potential changes in the standard faculty teaching load. Joyner’s plan said teaching loads may be changed along with a reduction of atwill staff, probationary and pre-tenured faculty, and tenured faculty — if a program is eliminated.
Joyner wants the retrenchment process to remain in effect until the college has two consecutive years of positive operating performance without administrative intervention. The faculty presentation called for a concrete end date of March 2026.
What happened at that Board of Trustees meeting is unclear. Joyner wouldn’t say, needing to still write up a report to share with the faculty first. Recent Faculty Chair Raquel Lopez, who is no longer the chair due to the end of her term after the May 13 meeting, declined the Press-Gazette’s interview request and did not answer emailed questions.
Three faculty representatives who were at the meeting — Kathleen Gallagher Elkins, Jason Haen and Seth Meyer — did not respond to the Press-Gazette’s emails or phone calls about what happened at the meeting.
Board of Trustees Chair Fred Schmidt did not respond to the PressGazette’s phone calls or email, and Vice Chair Patti McKeithan declined to be interviewed.
However, in an email to faculty obtained by the Press-Gazette, Lopez said the board plans to take both proposals under advisement and will make a final decision at the end of the month. Only the board has the authority to declare retrenchment.
It’s largely unclear where the faculty stands on the possibility of cutting tenured colleagues, but Bolin said it’s a pretty drastic step.
“Nobody here is trying to be sanguine or cavalier about the pressures facing higher education and the pressures facing small colleges,” he said. “But to have gotten to this point, so quickly under new leadership, when I hear that we’re already at retrenchment, I’m a little taken aback by the speed at which we’ve arrived here.”
For him, the main concern is the institutional change that will come with eliminating tenured faculty.
What is the plan for St. Norbert College moving forward?
Other cuts have been made aside from the layoffs announced earlier this academic year.
In March, St. Norbert announced cutting retiree health benefits effective June 1 for those 65 and older. Over the next five years, it’s expected to save the college $262,000 annually. It also announced an increase to the spousal health benefit surcharge that started in January. That is projected to save the college $643,000 annually.
Joyner is also looking to generate additional revenue by adding over 12 new academic programs, a new partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and expanding athletics, among other initiatives.
The main next step is a program review where the college will look at all its offerings and make decisions about which programs should be invested in and those that should be cut.
Joyner is focused on both new revenue generation as well as getting costs down, saying it has to be both sides of the coin.
Joyner joined the college as president in July 2023, coming from St. Xavier University, where she faced a noconfidence vote from faculty in 2021, according to the Chicago Tribune. Before St. Xavier, Joyner resigned from her post as president of Wittenberg University “abruptly in the middle of the semester,” according to the Springfield News-Sun.
Danielle DuClos is a Report for America corps member who covers K-12 education for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at dduclos@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @danielle_duclos. You can directly support her work with a tax-deductible donation at GreenBayPressGazette.com/RFA or by check made out to The GroundTruth Project with subject line Report for America Green Bay Press Gazette Campaign. Address: The GroundTruth Project, Lockbox Services, 9450 SW Gemini Drive, PMB 46837, Beaverton, Oregon 970087105.