HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. — In an email sent to the university’s staff and faculty on Tuesday morning, Northern Kentucky University President Dr. Cady Short-Thompson announced that several financial factors have necessitated “difficult but strategic adjustments” to the budget midyear.
The adjustments mentioned in the email included “eliminating some vacant positions, reducing operating budgets, and making a small number of staffing reductions, accounting for less than one percent of our total workforce.”
NKU has roughly 2,000 total employees, meaning 1% of the workforce accounts for a personnel decrease of around 20 positions. The university confirmed to the Northerner that 18 filled positions have been eliminated, but declined further comment.
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Reductions to operating budgets could affect departmental spending on supplies, travel, student events and non-essential services. The exact positions and departments that will be impacted by these cuts remain unclear.
President Short-Thompson clarified that the university is not shutting its doors to new employees completely, stating that “this is not a hiring freeze; we have several key vacant positions which are currently posted for application.”
Several high-level university positions are currently vacant: registrar, director of University Housing and director of the School of Nursing, to name a few. Both the vice president of student affairs position and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences position have only been filled in the past year, both having been in a vacant or interim capacity for over a year prior.
The email noted “lower-than-anticipated state performance funding, the adverse effect of a change in the state’s delinquent collections practices, and a slight decline in graduate and international enrollments this fall” as reasons for the cuts and staff reductions.
President Short-Thompson noted that these decisions were “painful” to make, but “necessary to ensure we do not return to a deficit situation.”
This is a developing story. The Northerner will continue to cover it as details emerge.
