St. Norbert College students protest staff layoffs amidst school board budget cuts
DE PERE, Wis. (WFRV) – St. Norbert College students are not happy with the school’s decision to lay off several employees, many of them taking the time to protest at the main campus hall Wednesday afternoon.
Junior Brooklyn Filtkowski says she found out earlier this week that three of her professors were let go, and it has affected her capstone project.
Kwik Trip says it is discontinuing bagged milk starting in May
Filtkowski says, “This research is integral for me to complete in order to do my grad school applications. It’s really important for my future. It’s also something I’m really passionate about, and haven’t been given a plan to continue.”
She, along with about 70 other students, protested to urge the Board of Trustees to find another way to cut the school’s budget. Vice President of Student Affairs Joseph Webb says in the last five years, student enrollment has declined by roughly 300 students each year.
“The main revenue source of any institution is tuition, room and board, and the main expenses are salary and fringe benefits. That was ultimately an area that kept coming back where we knew that we had to right-size the institution,” he explains.
The school held a town hall meeting Tuesday night for students to ask the board any questions they had about the layoffs, and while they understand the board’s need to downsize, they still think there could have been another way to go about it.
Sophomore Scotlyn Roemhilt was at the protest and said, “My suggestion would be to look at salaries amongst not only faculty but also administration. The president believes that cutting salaries would lead to resentment. I have a hard time believing that cutting faculty wouldn’t do the same thing but on a tenfold scale.”
Senior Hailey Murphy echoed Roemhilt’s sentiment saying, “If they are going to treat our college institution as a business we should be treated as paying customers, and we should be able to have knowledge of the product that we’re paying tens of thousands of dollars for.”
Even though Webb understands the students’ concerns, he hopes they will realize this was the only way to significantly lessen the school’s deficit.
Organizers gather in Appleton to assemble ‘Courage Kits’ for cancer patients
He says, “These students here today are here because they care about the institution. They care about our beloved St. Norbert College and they want to voice their concern, but the most important thing is for our students, our faculty, our staff, and our partners to know that we’re here. We’re listening and here to support.”
While the school did not provide an exact number of how many staff members would be laid off, they say 65% of its budget is currently going to salary and benefits for employees.
