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Southeast Missouri State University is eliminating 4 percent of its full-time work force in the midst of a multiyear budget crunch.
The university will cut between 20 and 25 staff members and chop 15 to 20 vacant staff positions, it announced Tuesday. No faculty positions are currently being eliminated, according to officials. But some vacant instructional positions could remain unfilled.
Cuts come as the university grapples with $3.43 million in one-time withholdings for the 2017 fiscal year and faces a $6.6 million budgeted need for 2018. Its state appropriations are dropping by 9 percent in 2018.
The university has previously reorganized divisions, put in place a voluntary retirement program that will net 74 faculty and staff retirements this year, eliminated vacant staff positions, and revamped the university’s benefits program. A four-month hiring delay is also in effect.
“As we navigated our initial budget challenges, we worked very hard to avoid impacting individual members of the university community,” President Carlos Vargas said in a statement. “But as we continue to operate in difficult times, the current realities have required tough decisions.”
Southeast Missouri State enrolls about 10,500 undergraduates and 1,000 graduate students on a head-count basis. Officials say it has about 4,000 more students than it did in 1999 but that its state appropriation is lower than it was that year.
Employees losing their jobs will be told in two rounds of notifications ending this spring. They will have five months’ notice before their last day.
