After Saint Louis University laid off 23 staff members in October, faculty and staff morale has weakened, leaving some uncertain about their future at the university.

SLU also cut expenses by 4%, or about $20 million, this fiscal year, and plans to cut an additional $40 million over the next two years. These cuts have delayed faculty raises originally scheduled to take effect Oct. 1 to January.  

It remains unclear how the cuts have affected specific academic departments and administrative divisions. Overall, faculty and graduate students have concerns related to the number of adjunct instructors allotted to departments for the spring semester, implications for their workload, and funding for research as the university moves toward R1 research status.

Staff from six administrative divisions and two schools lost their jobs, according to an Oct. 18 university statement, which did not name the offices in which cuts were made. The University News confirmed that five people were laid off in the Office of the Provost, at least three in the Office of the Vice President for Research and one in the Student Involvement Center. The UNews is continuing to confirm where others were laid off. 

University administrators have said they are committed to making transparent, faculty-focused decisions about budget cuts, but faculty fear future budget cuts may directly affect their ability to balance teaching and research. 

Arts and Sciences Faculty Council President Ruben Rosario-Rodriguez said that unequal pay across departments has hindered faculty unity. 

“The climate among faculty is not good. I talked to one tenured faculty member who is budgeting month to month,” Rosario-Rodriguez said. “There’s a huge inequality between salaries depending on the department. For many STEM faculty, if salaries are unaffected, they may be very happy with the way things are going. But for those who may even be at the top of their field in the humanities, their salaries are barely keeping up with inflation.”

Fewer adjunct positions awarded to departments 

The College of Arts and Sciences only approved 40% of the adjunct requests that were made by its departments for the spring 2025 semester. Adjuncts are typically hired on temporary, semester-based contracts, usually to teach introductory classes, many of which are required courses for freshmen and sophomores. 

Rosario-Rodriguez, who also serves as Clarence Louis and Helen Steber professor in the theology department, said for the first time in about 15 years, more than half of the department’s requests for adjuncts were denied this semester. 

“We always relied on adjuncts, not by design, but because of the sheer volume of courses we have to offer. Faculty members then have to not offer certain upper-level courses and switch to teaching a foundational course,” Rosario-Rodriguez said.

This dilemma is intensified for departments like theology that teach courses in the core curriculum requirements, which are mandatory for all students across campus. To meet this demand, departments often rely on adjunct instructors to teach a portion of those class sections, allowing full-time faculty to teach higher-level, or more specialized course offerings. With fewer adjuncts to fill this role, faculty have to fill in the vacant roles and give those higher-level classes. 

Lori Baron, an assistant professor in the theological studies department and a coordinator of the department’s undergraduate studies, said she is also concerned that several adjunct faculty won’t be offered contracts for the spring 2025 semester.

“I wish that we didn’t have to cut people. Our faculty and staff are so important to our students getting their education,” Baron said.

Additional adjunct positions that were previously open won’t be filled next year because of the university’s near-total hiring freeze, Baron said.

She was originally scheduled to teach 3000-level classes next spring. With fewer adjuncts, Baron said she will have to teach some of the classes adjuncts would have taught instead.

“It makes me sad for these people who have been around for years in our department, teaching classes that are really popular with students,” Baron said. “On the other hand, I understand from what I’ve heard that the university has to make cuts and I’m trying to be sympathetic to that.”

University to reevaluate workload policy 

The university is currently reevaluating its workload policy, which dictates how much tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty are allowed to work. The standards are likely to change due to departmental restructurings related to budget cuts. It is also heavily related to the university’s plans to move to an R1 research-intensive school. 

The current policy allocates workload hours differently based on the amount of research, teaching and service a faculty member does. If faculty does more research, then they are expected to do less teaching and vice versa.  

A Provost-led committee has been tasked with examining the policy, which was last updated in 2021.  

“This is a big area of consternation among the faculty and with the administration, and it’s going to be a big part of these Provost teams,” said Paul Bracher, an associate professor of chemistry. “It’s a big area of concern, and there are going to be people who are unhappy about it, for sure.”

With open positions not being filled and adjunct support waning, SLU’s ambitions in research means departments have to reimagine what a normal workload unit is and does, Bracher added. 

Savannah Warners, a doctorate student and graduate instructor in the English department, said university budget cuts make her anxious about her future academic prospects.

“I’d love to work in academia, and seeing all of these changes at SLU makes me feel unsettled about my own career,” Warners said. “It’s not great for the morale of graduate students, undergraduate students and for the morale of a learning environment in general.”

Questions linger surrounding research support 

In the Office of the Vice President for Research, which oversees the distribution of all academic research funding, at least three staff members were laid off, including two who held executive research development positions. 

While most of the cuts and layoffs have been on the administrative side, cuts to this research office worry faculty who say these cuts contradict the university’s promise not to change faculty and student resources. This specific cut will “indirectly affect everyone,” Bracher said. 

It also leaves graduate students worried about their research, said a doctorate student in the history department, who prefers to remain anonymous because she feared risking funding from the university for her research. 

“Staff that help facilitate grant writing, specifically in the humanities department, were cut,” the student said. “As a result of SLU majorly downsizing that office, people are going to have to do jobs themselves that are typically spread among several.”

The anonymous student, who also teaches in the history department, said budget restraints have put pressure on her day-to-day research and teaching.

“On one hand, we have been assured by the university that these cuts are not for faculty and not for graduate students, but on the other hand, it’s really hard to do our jobs if there’s not good funding for research,” the student said. “It’s not clear what’s next on the cutting block.” 

Graduate thesis and dissertation funding could now be at risk, the student added. Some graduate students have been pressured to complete their research faster than planned. 

“Previously, there had been this assumption that you would certainly get a sixth year of funding. That is something we have been told we can no longer assume,” the student said. 

For Baron, the theology professor, the uncertainty of what else will be cut over the next two years is concerning. 

“I’m a person who worries,” Baron said. “I would say for the near future, I’m not worried, but I know that the cuts that happened this year were the first of a series of cuts. So I really hope I can stay at SLU as long as SLU will have me, or until I decide I actually can retire.”

Despite these concerns, Baron said that she believes SLU is making an effort to keep as many faculty as possible while balancing the budget. 

“I feel like I’m working for an organization that seems to care about people,” Baron said. “That seems to want to live out its Jesuit values.”

The University News will continue to report on these layoffs and the overall budget situation in the following months.

Correction: Dr. Rosario-Rodriguez was previously listed as an assistant professor in the theology department. That has since been corrected to his current title as Clarence Louis and Helen Steber professor.