Wilberforce University Cuts 15 Percent of Staff
WILBERFORCE, Ohio
Falling enrollments and financial pressures have forced Wilberforce University to lay off 15 percent of its staff, school officials said last month.
Eric Winston, vice president of development, said 35 administrators and non-teaching staff members have been laid off as part of a series of cost-cutting measures. Before the layoffs, there were 235 staff members at the private, historically Black school.
Officials said they needed to reduce operating costs because of falling enrollments, low returns on investments related to the slumping economy and the need to spend money for maintenance and campus construction. Winston said the school also will cut spending for nonessential items.
“If they don’t have to have it, it won’t be purchased,” he says.
About 1,100 students attended Wilberforce this fall. Enrollment is projected to drop to 924 in the winter quarter.
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