Citing slow enrollment and lingering effects of this spring’s student protests, Emerson College said Tuesday it will cut faculty and staff and limit hiring for next year.
“We understand this is difficult news and will do our best to mitigate its impact on our core academic programs,” president Jay M. Bernhardt wrote in an internal email to faculty and staff.
The decision followed the college’s enrollment deposit deadline for new students, the email said, noting that the size of next year’s freshman class was “significantly below what we had hoped.”
Student safety amid pro-Palestinian campus protests at colleges across the nation became a flashpoint at Emerson earlier this year. Student protesters targeting Emerson’s enrollment events and student tours, also took a toll on enrollment, Berhardt said, as did media coverage.
In April, Boston police arrested 108 protesters during an overnight sweep of a pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus. Both students and police said they were injured during the aggressive clash.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu later defended police actions saying demonstrators “wanted to get arrested.”
Officials did not detail the size of the enrollment decline, or the number of positions that will be frozen or cut. More than 4,100 students attended the $55,000-a-year school in downtown Boston last year.
Earlier this week, Hampshire College, another small private college in Amherst, announced staff benefit cuts due to an enrollment decline.
Both Hampshire and Emerson cited the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — or FAFSA — as another obstacle to student enrollment. The federal government’s rollout of the new financial aid form has been plagued by errors, delays and technical difficulties, making it harder for families to apply for financial aid.
