Ohio Wesleyan University announced it is making $10 million worth of budget cuts.
The cuts include 44 non-teaching staff positions, 14 of which were vacant.
“Even before the pandemic, we knew we had to reimagine and redesign how we do our work to fulfill Ohio Wesleyan’s mission and successfully educate students now and into the future,” said university president Rock Jones. “We knew the position we were in, with a shrinking population of prospective students, increasing competition, and families less able to afford the rising cost of higher education.”
Officials will also be lessening matching contributions to employee retirement accounts, discontinuing supplemental funding for their early childhood center and art museum, eliminating the varsity rowing program and instituting other cuts.
The university says the goal of the budget cuts is to provide more affordable education: the school eliminated a planned tuition increase, and increased its financial aid budget.
