Dive Brief:
- Clarion University is moving ahead with 36 planned layoffs, 18 of which are professors.
- Instead of shuttering its College of Education and Human Services, Clarion will now retitle it and integrate it in the new School of Health Sciences, combining its departments and teaching programs with those of other departments.
- The school initially planned to lay off 40 staff and administrative positions campus-wide (22 of which were professors), but faculty retirements and reassignments are being credited for the slightly smaller numbers.
Dive Insight:
The layoffs and reshuffling of its college of education are but two parts of Clarion University's ongoing reorganization plans, and it isn't the only school among Pennsylvania's 14 state-owned universities implementing such plans. The reorganizations are being pegged on declining enrollment, cuts to state funding and rising costs in the current economy. Other coming changes at Clarion? The College of Arts and Sciences will be reduced to five departments and developing new tech and science programs—like a doctorate of nursing and bachelors' of science in nutrition and fitness, nursing and justice administration.