Loyola cost-cutting vote is today
University prepares for lower enrollment

John Pope Staff writer

Copyright 2006, The Times-Picayune. All rights reserved.
Loyola University's trustees are to vote today on a restructuring plan that has drawn fire from students and faculty because it calls for layoffs and the elimination of what they say are some of the Jesuit institution's most popular programs.

The cost-cutting strategy, which includes plans to do away with the broadcast-production and -journalism majors and the entire education department, was criticized at a universitywide forum and triggered "no confidence" votes from the University Senate and the Arts and Sciences Assembly, said Vernon Gregson, chairman of the religious-studies department.

"The decision was made to show our displeasure," Gregson said, although the votes blasted the office of the provost, Loyola's chief academic officer, but not Loyola's president, the Rev. Kevin Wildes.

"The faculty is rather strong," Gregson said, "but the faculty can do nothing other than give a recommendation."

Meeting to be private

When asked about the votes, Wildes, who fielded questions on the plan at the forum, said he will address faculty concerns early next week.

He also said that the plan's fate is in the hands of the board of trustees, whose meeting on campus will be closed to the public.

"They may accept it, or they may reject it and send me back to square one," Wildes said.

Like reorganization plans at other local universities such as Tulane and the University of New Orleans, the proposal for Loyola is a response to Hurricane Katrina's destruction. But the motivation is different: It is not designed to allow for the cost of hurricane damage because the repair bill for the Uptown campus -- between $5 million and $6 million -- was relatively light, Wildes said.

Rather, Loyola's restructuring plan is designed to help the university prepare for lower enrollment because, he said, the perception in other parts of the country that New Orleans is a dangerous place probably will make parents think twice about letting their children register at Loyola.

This is no small consideration, Wildes said, because out-of- state enrollments account for about three-fourths of Loyola's students.

"Our out-of-state applications are down," he said. "Our budget goal is 600 incoming students, compared with 850 in years past. Our latest estimate was about 500."

Before Katrina hit Aug. 29, Loyola had registered 950 first-year students, the most in its history, Loyola Provost Walter Harris Jr. said.

Erasing a deficit

Loyola's deficit for the fiscal year ending July 31 is expected to be about $10 million, Wildes said.

But if the board approves the reorganization plan he drafted with Harris, and if enrollment proceeds as scheduled, the deficit should be erased by the 2007-08 academic year, Wildes said.

The proposal is part of a five-year plan, "Pathways Toward Our Second Century," that had been in the works before Katrina struck and accelerated the initiative, Wildes said.

Loyola was founded in 1912.

According to the plan, 17 teachers would be laid off and City College, Loyola's continuing-education division, would be eliminated, although its programs might wind up in other parts of the university, Harris said.

Also scheduled for extinction are the education department and degree programs in fields such as broadcast production, computer science and film studies.

In deciding what to drop, Wildes said enrollment was a major factor.

Several faculty members said the number of students in several imperiled programs, including broadcast production, was high enough to warrant keeping them.

Wildes disagreed with that contention, saying, "We're working off official statistics."

Checking out competition

Deliberations took into account enrollments at other colleges, Wildes said.

One example was the education department. "At one time, we were leaders in education," he said, "but other institutions have taken our market share. . . . We're not the only one in town doing education, and the other institutions are commanding the lion's share."

Also scheduled to be discontinued are majors in communication studies, film studies, four computer-related fields and the postgraduate program that led to a law degree and a master's degree in communications.

Several programs are to be suspended, which means that no one will be allowed to major in them for two years, after which they will be reassessed.

They are undergraduate majors and minors in German, Japanese, music composition, music theory, physics, piano teaching and Russian. Postgraduate programs to be suspended are music education, music in performance, music therapy and religious studies.

The College of Behavioral Sciences is being created to house counseling, psychology, criminal justice, political science, the School of Communications and sociology. The College of Liberal Arts and Science would contain the English, history, languages, philosophy, biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics departments, as well as the schools of nursing and religious studies.

The other colleges under this plan would be the College of Music and Fine Arts; the Joseph A. Butt, S.J., School of Business; and the College of Law.

Teachers facing layoffs taught in programs that will be eliminated. Tenured professors will be paid through the 2006-07 academic year.

Although Harris said juniors and seniors in undergraduate programs to be dropped will be able to finish their degree programs, Gregson fretted that these students may not be taught by tenured faculty members.

In discussing the formation of the plan, Wildes said he was guided by the board of trustees' mandate to make a streamlined five- year plan.

"Everybody wants us to put back," he said, "but nobody wants to take anything out."

Before the proposal was unveiled in April, 28 employees were laid off in December and 29 positions were vacant because the people holding those jobs retired, resigned or did not return after the storm, Loyola spokeswoman Kristine Lelong said.

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John Pope can be reached at jpope@timespicayune.com or at (504) 826-3317.