Northland College announces plans to lay off 9 faculty members while remaining open

Northland College announced it will be laying off nine faculty members as part of a plan to keep its door open after school leaders said that financial struggles were threatening its future. 

The Ashland college said the cuts were difficult, but were necessary as part of a restructuring of the school’s curriculum and operations. 

“Northland College is deeply grateful to each of these individuals for their many important contributions to our College and community,” the college said in an email. “We’ve had to make very difficult decisions, but we are confident we are putting the right structure in place to support and sustain Northland into the future.”

The college will retain 31 faculty members under a curriculum that focuses on eight majors, including business, environmental humanities and sustainable community development. The college’s intercollegiate athletics program will also continue. 

The college’s enrollment is around 500 undergraduate students, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education, but the college has said its enrollment goal for this upcoming fall is 385 students. 

The cuts are part of a trend across Wisconsin’s smaller higher education institutions, with the University of Wisconsin system recently closing a number of its satellite campuses. 

Wisconsin’s private colleges and universities are also facing financial troubles. St. Norbert’s College in De Pere has cut 47 staff and non-tenured faculty positions in the last year and Concordia University announced plans in April to lay off 24 employees from its Mequon campus. Marquette University has also announced plans for $31 million in budget cuts over the next six years.

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