- St. Norbert College has announced that it's reduced its workforce by 41 personnel.
- 29 positions were immediately impacted, and the remaining 12 will be impacted by the end of 2024.
- In the video above, St. Norbert President Laurie Joyner explains that all of the staff that have been cut are valuable and the decision was not made lightly.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
You may have heard of some personnel position cuts that are going on at St. Norbert College in De Pere. I'm Darby McCarthy, and I came here to learn more about why and how that's going to affect operations going forward.
St. Norbert President Laurie Joyner says that her college has been affected by a change in demographics over the years.
She says that since 2008, families have been having fewer children, so enrollment has been slightly down due to a lower number of 18 to 22-year-olds.
But she also says that the cuts will not affect the quality of the education of students on campus, and in fact, most of the positions that were cut are not student-facing.
"Resilience is really built into this institution's DNA. We're part of a 900-year Norbertine tradition. And so although these moments in our long history are always tough, right, because we have lost valued colleagues, this institution is fundamentally strong and will continue delivering on the promise of that Catholic Norbertine education for the next 125 years."
Joyner says that the college has more than 500 faculty and staff members, and she says these cuts will represent less than 5% of the labor force.
She also says that all of the cut personnel will receive severance.
Joyner says that of the 41 total impacted personnel, 29 were immediately affected, and the remaining 12 will be affected either at the end of this semester, at the end of the academic year, or at the end of 2024.
