The unprecedented budget cuts at the private liberal arts school are expected to save more than $2 million a year.
LAWRENCE -- Facing a potentially crippling budget crisis, Rider University will slash 13 majors and one minor and eliminate more than 20 jobs, including 14-full-time faculty members, the school announced today.
The unprecedented budget cuts at the private liberal arts college are expected to save more than $2 million a year as Rider tries to close its deficit, already at $7.6 million of this year's $216 million budget, according to the university.
Current juniors and seniors will be able to complete degrees in their major, but sophomores and freshman will need to switch majors or transfer. In total, 272 students, including 123 sophomores and freshman are in the affected programs, university President Gregory Dell'Omo said.
Dell'Omo, who took office in August, announced the cuts Thursday during a town hall meeting with faculty and staff. Letters were also sent to students' families, he said.
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"This is a tough day," Dell'Omo told NJ Advance Media after the town hall meeting. "But we would not have made this decision unless I really felt these were the right things for the university."
The cuts were prompted by years of declining enrollment combined with rising costs for instruction, Dell'Omo said. But an official for the school's faculty union said the faculty and the university have a difference of opinion over the severity of Rider's financial challenges.
"Our first take on it was this is not necessary," said Jeff Halpern, contract administrator and chief grievance officer for the faculty union. "A major restructuring without any conversations with the faculty is simply formula for disaster."
Majors that will be eliminated beginning next fall are art and art history, advertising, American studies, business education, French, geosciences, German, marine science, philosophy, piano and web design. The bachelor of arts program in economics and the graduate program in organizational leadership will also be eliminated.
Three majors -- business economics, entrepreneurial studies and sociology -- will be offered only as minors, and the school's minor in Italian will be eliminated.
Rider began this school year with 73 majors, according the university. It considered student enrollment, market demand and potential cost savings when it decided which majors to cut, Dell'Omo said.
The program reductions will result in the layoff of 14 full-time faculty and the elimination of two clerical jobs and five vacant faculty position. Part-time faculty who teach in eliminated academic programs will not be re-hired for those positions next school year, according to the university.
It's unclear how many part-time faculty will be affected, Dell'Omo said.
The faculty union found out about the budget cuts at 9 a.m. this morning, Halpern said. The union and administration had discussed contract concessions, including a wage freeze this school year, but couldn't reach an agreement, he said.
"Institutions like Rider really live and die on the relationship between faculty and students," Halpern said. "I can only say that our faculty is dispirited, morale is completely destroyed, and I don't see how that can be a positive thing."
Tuition and fees at Rider increased 4.2 percent to $38,360 this year while total undergraduate enrollment fell to 3,712, about a 9 percent drop from 2009. The university saw a 14 percent decrease in the number of incoming freshman this fall compared to last year.
Rider's financial problems come as many small private colleges around the nation are struggling to stay out of the red. While elite colleges, including Princeton University, are attracting record numbers of applications and large donations, many smaller liberal arts schools are losing students.
Nationwide, the number of college-age students is declining and the stagnant economy has prompted many families to shy away from small liberal arts schools with high tuition. Private colleges with meager endowments often don't have enough money in the bank to weather enrollment declines.
In the last few years, several small colleges have closed, including Lebanon College in New Hampshire and Mid-Continent University in Kentucky. Others are considering closing or merging with other schools.
But Dell'Omo said Rider's cuts are not a sign that the university will follow in the path of those that shut down.
"We are not anywhere near that," he said.
Staff writer Kelly Heyboer contributed to this report.
Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook.