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Dive Brief:
- Portland State University leaders are considering closing three departments and reducing another 16 as the public institution tries to close a $35 million budget gap.
- “In order to avoid a financial crisis that would jeopardize the ability of PSU to fulfill its mission, the entire campus has taken a comprehensive evaluation of all its operations to identify efficiencies and potential savings,” PSU President Ann Cudd said in a public message Monday.
- Cudd plans to start a process outlined in the university’s faculty union contract that allows employees to give input on cuts and suggest alternatives.
Dive Insight:
Three departments are on the chopping block: the general education-focused University Studies; Conflict Resolution, which has both bachelor’s and graduate programs; and PSU’s Portland Center, a study abroad program for international students.
Shuttering the University Studies department could create unspecified impacts on six additional departments, including English, physics, sociology and PSU’s art school, Cudd said. Another 10 departments are facing potential reductions, among them the university’s history, philosophy and economics departments.
The department cuts will lead to layoffs, administrators confirmed on a FAQ page.
Cudd said that university leaders have not made final decisions. In explaining the potential cuts, she said PSU’s board has directed her to “reduce and eliminate the use of our reserves to fund the university’s operations.”
But the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors decried the possibility of cuts and opening Article 22 — the process for administration and faculty to discuss cuts to university departments and programs due to financial issues.
“It’s so disappointing to find that we’re here,” the faculty group said in a statement Monday, calling the leaders’ proposal “a hasty and unimaginative plan for a situation that demands something better.”
The AAUP chapter added that the university still has “resources available to us to reinvest in growth and fight this austerity and this further depopulation of campus.”
The group recently won a legal battle against PSU when the university agreed to reinstate 10 non-tenure-track faculty members it laid off last year after a ruling by an independent arbitrator. Despite reinstating the faculty to comply with that decision, Cudd said at the time officials still considered the reductions “necessary and appropriate.”
Fall enrollment at PSU fell 21.2% over five years, declining to 19,951 students in fall 2024. The drop has hurt the university’s tuition revenue as well as state funding, which is tied to the number of credentials awarded to Oregon residents.
