Emerson College announces layoffs amidst enrollment decline linked to campus protests

Boston Globe. ^ | June 19, 2024 | Beth Treffeisen

[george76]

The college is partly blaming the declining numbers on negative press from the pro-Palestinian demonstrations and arrests..

Following an enrollment decline, Emerson College, in an email sent to faculty and staff Tuesday, announced that it will lay off staff and not fill some vacant positions in fiscal year 2025, according to The Boston Globe.

The college is blaming the enrollment decline in part on “negative press and social media” from the pro-Palestinian demonstrations and subsequent arrests.

...

President Jay Bernhardt wrote that he expects the enrollment decline to last only one year, but the effects will ripple through the budget for the next several.

“We attribute this reduction to multiple factors, including national enrollment trends away from smaller private institutions, an enrollment deposit delay in response to the new FAFSA rollout, student protests targeting our yield events and campus tours, and negative press and social media generated from the demonstrations and arrests,” Bernhardt wrote in an email shared with the Globe.

Michelle Gaseau, an Emerson spokesperson, declined to comment on the subject Wednesday morning and said the message was internal.

...

a faculty member told the Globe they were blindsided by the announcement.

[Vermont Lt]

Maybe some kids figured out that an Emerson degree was not going to do much beyond getting your own podcast. Not exactly a huge draw.

[EVO X]

$320K is solid seed capital—much more useful than an Emerson “credential”.

Yes indeed, but it is unlikely a college age student could get such a loan..

[Maris Crane]

I just learned that President Trump is going to have a rally at:

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY CAMPAS IN NORTH PHILLY.

Temple is where I went to college, only to my shame and one of my professors’ blame...because I attended a facility in the suburbs...I was a bum, a user, someone who was not “ghetto” enough to attend a prestigious university meant for minorities.

At the end of the term, he was singing a different song.
We “got to him.”