Facing financial deficit, Concordia University Wisconsin to lay off 24 employees
Concordia University Wisconsin will lay off two dozen employees at its Mequon campus at the end of this school year.
The university informed the state Department of Workforce Development of the workforce reduction in a Monday filing. The layoffs take effect around May 31.
Concordia President Erik Ankerberg informed the Mequon campus of looming cuts earlier this year "to secure our future together as an institution." Positions will also be cut at the university's Ann Arbor campus.
The cuts represent about 4% of each campus' employee base, Ankerberg wrote in a letter last week. In addition, Concordia completed a series of job reclassifications and program restructurings. Together, the actions mark the completion of one phase in an "anticipated three-year budget correction."
Concordia staff declined to provide the types of positions being eliminated, the total cost savings associated with the layoffs and details on the three-year budget correction timeline.
Concordia merged its Mequon campus with the Ann Arbor campus in 2013. A committee is exploring the idea of the Michigan campus becoming an autonomous Concordia university that would remain part of the Concordia University System, a national network of schools independently run but all affiliated with The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
Like many institutions in Wisconsin, Concordia is feeling the financial squeeze. Costs exceed the revenue Concordia is bringing in, which is heavily dependent on tuition.
Enrollment fell from nearly 6,000 students in 2016 to nearly 4,400 in the 2021-22 school year, the latest federal data available.
Concordia's tax forms show the school has run a deficit in five of the last six years. The deficits ranged from $2 million to $6.3 million.
The U.S. Education Department annually calculates the overall financial health of private institutions participating in federal student aid programs based on schools’ audited financial statements. The scores range from -1.0 to 3.0, with schools scored 1.5 or higher considered financially responsible. Concordia's most recent score from 2020-21 was 3.0.
"We cannot–and will not–minimize the impact of these changes," Ankerberg wrote to employees, adding: "At the same time, we can take some measure of solace that we are still in a position of relative strength."
Contact Kelly Meyerhofer at kmeyerhofer@gannett.com or 414-223-5168. Follow her on X (Twitter) at @KellyMeyerhofer.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Concordia University Wisconsin to lay off 24 employees
