Student Affairs Eliminates Four Leadership Roles Amid Budget Constraints

Four staff positions within the office of Student Affairs have been eliminated over the course of January as part of a long-term staffing adjustment to adapt to budget constraints.

Eliminated staff include Director of Gender and LGBTQ+ Equity and Engagement Hayley Nicholas, Director of the Multicultural Resource Center Jane Kungu, Interim Director of the Class and Access Resource Center Scarlett Im ’17, and Assistant Director for Religious & Spiritual Life and Campus Rabbi Shahar Colt.

In an email to staff and faculty on Jan. 16, later forwarded to students by Student Affairs, President Michael Elliott described the changes to staffing as driven by “preparations for the [new Student Center & Dining Commons] and a desire to make the resource centers and religious and spiritual life more responsive to student needs in the current, challenging environment.” 

The email also framed staff adjustments within Student Affairs as part of a long-term “strategic examination of staffing at the College” to reconcile long-term budgetary pressures. According to Elliott, the college’s current financial course would result in annual budget deficits of over $40 million, resulting mainly from rising operational costs due to higher interest rates, an increase in the cost of health care and benefits for faculty and staff, and an increase in full-time equivalent staff over the last decade. 

“Wherever possible, we will achieve our strategic goals through retirements, attrition, and by not filling or repurposing open roles,” Elliott wrote. “However, we do anticipate that a small number of positions across the College will be eliminated over time.”

In a statement to The Student, Vice President of Communications Sandy Genelius explained that the college’s reorganization effort has been underway for the past two years, involving changes to multiple other divisions, including Health and Wellbeing, Community Living, Care and Accountability, and Equity and Engagement. 

The Student has reached out to the eliminated staff members and student workers at affected centers, but none were available to comment.

As a follow-up to a Dec. 12 article criticizing the annual orientation performance “Voices of the Class,” which features out-of-context lines from the admissions essays of consenting first-year students, The Washington Free Beacon published an article on Jan. 16 that described the Student Affairs staff “layoffs” as a direct result of recent negative media attention directed towards the college. 

“The layoffs are the latest aftershock of the Free Beacon report, which included images and videos of students acting out oral and group sex on the chancel of Johnson Chapel,” the article wrote.

In the same statement, Genelius further emphasized that any claims made by external media sources connecting recent staffing changes to “Voices of the Class” are unsubstantiated. 

According to Genelius, no staff have been “terminated” from their positions throughout the examination process, as this term suggests removal based on performance. 

“No Amherst employee was dismissed for such reasons ... staff who were directly impacted were offered a promotion or a new position or had their positions eliminated,” she said.

One Student Affairs staff member, David Ko, was appointed to a new expanded role as both Director of the Center for International Student Engagement (CISE) and of Religious and Spiritual Life. When asked about the timing of the Student Affairs staff eliminations, Genelius said the changes were done in early January to avoid impacts to student life, allow enough time to find new staff members before the new student center opens, and give eliminated staff the opportunity to compete in higher education job searches typically held in the spring. 

In light of the changes, both Elliott and Genelius affirmed the college’s commitment to maintaining fully staffed and funded resource centers and religious and spiritual life programs. “Searches are already underway for an Associate Director for each center without current leadership,” Genelius stated. 

Until then, Ko and Senior Director of Identity and Cultural Engagement Chris Campbell have taken on central roles in managing student staff, the various faith chaplains, and other student groups to assure the continuation of the resource centers and of religious and spiritual life.