By Evelyn Lucado and Logan Monteleone
Incoming Editor in Chief and Incoming News Editor
At the final faculty meeting of the spring semester on April 28, Vice President for Finance and Administration Bo Connell presented a pro-forma five-year budget plan for the College, including updates on the current cash flow deficit and the intention to decrease the compensation budget next year.
The compensation budget decrease will include “difficult decisions” regarding layoffs. Such measures will include not renewing outgoing positions such as visiting assistant professor positions, an early retirement program, and possibly a voluntary separation program that would provide an incentive to leave the College for those eligible, according to Connell.
“We will look at the number of people who have taken advantage of this early retirement program…[and] this voluntary separation program, and then that will give us a better sense of the reduction enforcement [that] might be necessary to get to that $4 million dollars,” Connell said.
According to Connell, the College has plans to close the estimated $2 million deficit remaining for this fiscal year by possibly increasing the draw on the endowment to 8%.
The $33 million compensation budget Connell presented for next fiscal year reflects a $4 million reduction from this year’s budget. The compensation budget includes salaries, wages, health benefits, retirement contributions, and other operating costs.
Connell said that the College canceled the audit this winter due to high cost and limited new findings. The College received an incomplete report from the firm in March.
“We have tried very hard to be as compassionate and humane about it as we can…we thought maybe we can put this together in a way that helps people make a decision on their own that they feel better about and that [the College] can feel better too,” Connell said.
Correction: The original headline for this article indicated that layoffs would impact faculty. No faculty positions were cut, nor were there College plans to do so. Layoffs affected staff positions only. The headline was revised on Aug. 27, 2025.