Princeton University will lay off 43 employees by the end of this fiscal year as the result of a nearly 23-percent endowment loss, The Daily Princetonian reported on Friday. Almost 20 other employees will face involuntary work hour reductions. Faculty members are immune from the cuts, Princeton President Shirley Tilghman told The Princetonian. She also said that employees who are laid off will receive assistance finding new positions, The Princetonian reported. Princeton spokeswoman Cass Cliatt told the newspaper that this is the first time the university has had to lay off such a high number of employees in recent memory. Other colleges and universities have reported staff reductions due to endowment decreases: Harvard University will lay off 275 employees, Yale University announced it will cut 100 jobs and Stanford University will lay off 500 employees, according to the article.
Federal funding for programs assisting disadvantaged students has remained nearly stagnant, increasing by only 1 percent in the past five years, The Boston Globe reported on Sunday. While funding for these programs has lagged, federal Pell grant funding has increased by one-third over the past three years, The Globe reported. Arnold Mitchem, president of Council for Opportunity in Education, said that grant money should be coupled with efforts to address students' academic confidence and skills issues, according to the article.
Adjunct professors working to accrue more workplace benefits should focus on changing their campus climates so that adjuncts are more valued and included in decision making, rather than seeking to alter individual employer practices, according to a study conducted by a University of Southern California professor, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported on Sunday. When administrators and tenure-track faculty value adjunct faculty members' contributions, they are more likely to address adjunct professors' concerns about working conditions, salaries and benefits, the study found. Adjunct professors are also more likely to receive assistance in their efforts to seek tenure in more inclusive environments, The Chronicle reported. The study focused on 30 North American colleges at which adjunct faculty members have secured workplace improvements. The authors established a three-stage spectrum to track colleges' progress in improving adjuncts' working conditions, according to The Chronicle.
