Layoffs & Budget Cuts at King’s
Three King’s staff and one faculty member were permanently laid off in the middle of last month. These layoffs include Dr. Tetyana Khramova, the Work Integrated Learning Coordinator in the Centre for Career and Calling; Kathleen Busch, the Manager in Community Relations; Shannon D’Agnone, the Director of Library Services; and Dr. Neal DeRoo, a tenured Professor in the Philosophy department and Canada Research Chair in Phenomenology and Philosophy of Religion.
These people have contributed generously with care and work at King’s for several years, and their departure is a notable loss that is widely felt amongst the King’s community. Staff and faculty have shared their sadness and deep gratitude for their colleagues over the past few weeks. Lower enrollment and unpredictable revenue during the pandemic alongside lower provincial government funding for postsecondary institutions have added pressures to universities in Alberta over the past two years.
The President and CEO of The King’s University, Dr. Melanie Humphreys, shared the following statement in reference to the recent budgetary decisions: “We have navigated the past two-years well despite the challenges presented by COVID-19, and we are thankful that there are signs that the pandemic may be coming to an end. The King’s University is in a good place financially; however, we are required to produce an annual budget for our Board of Governors that is both conservative and balanced. This protects the long-term future and educational mission of King’s. It protects our ability to apply for research funding from federal granting agencies and builds confidence and trust amongst our supporting constituents. Despite our best efforts to produce a balanced budget, a small deficit has been approved by the Board in recognition of revenues that are still depressed due to the pandemic. Regretfully, the requirement to minimize our proposed operating budget deficit meant that we needed to layoff four employees. Great care was taken to ensure that we could maintain programs and services to students despite these reductions.”
The process of deciding where and on whom the budgetary balancing should fall has led to some tension. A faculty member achieves a tenured post through a lengthy review process of their research, teaching, and commitment to the King’s Mission and Vision. Tenured posts across post-secondary institutions are continuous contracts that are intended to protect scholars’ research freedom; they can only be terminated for cause, which is not the case with Dr. DeRoo, or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. The decision to lay off a tenured professor under the present unexpected budgetary tension that the pandemic has created does not explain the University’s decision to lay off a professor with higher seniority than other faculty members. In past financial difficulties, there have been pay cuts arranged between professors and administration to successfully and altogether avoid laying off faculty members. The decision to permanently lay off a tenured professor is an unprecedented event at King’s. Tenure is generally equated to professional security in academia, but this situation has left questions as to its meaning at King’s.
Dr. Jeffrey Dudiak is taking a sabbatical next year, which leaves Dr. Joshua Harris as the only King’s faculty member available to teach philosophy courses in the 2022/2023 academic year.
Student services may also be affected by the layoffs. It is unclear how the King’s Library will be responsible for redistributing the Director’s responsibilities among the remaining staff, including who will manage the inter-library NEOS database responsibilities and other library database obligations. Business internship coordination is currently the responsibility of Dr. Khramova; the plan for its future management remains to be shared. Kathleen Busch has led the alumni services alongside the public lecture series that connect King’s with the public and partnered with Witty Sandle to create services that support students’ transition towards graduation, and it is not clear in what manner these will continue.
Budgetary decisions are currently underway for the 2022/2023 academic year. King’s has committed to increasing combined tuition and fees by 4.35% in the next academic year, which is less than the current Consumer Price Index (4.8%) and the average tuition increase at public universities (7%). The Faculty-Staff Association (FSA) has already completed negotiations for benefits and salary for King’s employees with the administration regarding the 2022/2023 budget. These negotiations concluded before any announcement of layoffs.
The informal association is unique within the province for its combined advocacy on behalf of both faculty and staff. Dr. Remkes Koistra, Chair of the FSA, commends this unique arrangement, saying, “We’ve really relied on a spirit of good will between administration, staff, and faculty to make this relationship work. This arrangement is a pretty huge advantage to trying to figure out something like a budget because you can be much more transparent. You don’t need to have a combative bargaining stance where you’re just trying to get how much you can get out of a process. This informality lets us all, collectively, think holistically about the good of the institution. King’s attracts people who are interested in what this place is doing, which feeds into the collective understanding that we’re all in this together. That understanding is fragile, so there are certainly risks going forward; but if you can make it work, if you’ve got the good will and the understanding and the relationship and the trust, it can be very powerful.”
The 2022/2023 budget will be sent by the President for approval by the Board mid-March.
This is a developing story.