Facing declining enrollment, Clark University to reduce faculty by as much as 30 percent over next three years
'All of higher education, Clark included, is at a critical inflection point,' university president David Fithian said. 'Rather than simply meet this challenging moment as an exercise in budget constraint, we have taken a longer view, leaning into current strengths and what is best about Clark to offer our students an even more compelling experience going forward.'
Advertisement
The number of faculty members will be reduced by 25 to 30 percent over the next three years, administrators said. Retirements and voluntary attrition will go toward the targeted reductions before layoffs are considered for non-tenure, pre-tenure, and adjunct faculty, they said.
Provost John Magee said in the statement that it was 'too soon' to determine whether tenured faculty will be affected.
Clark employed 228 full-time and 101 part-time instructional faculty members last year, according to the Common Data Set, which tracks university demographics.
Clark's chapter of the American Association of University Professors, which represents full-time faculty, did not immediately return a request for comment.
The university is also implementing a hiring freeze for staff as part of
a 5 percent reduction over the next year, administrators said.
Advertisement
Administrators also said that majors with low enrollment will be eliminated, with new majors, courses, and concentrations added. The school will refocus its curriculum to three areas it identified as 'most relevant to meeting the needs of a changing world': climate, environment, and society; media arts, computing, and design; and health and human behavior.
Related
:
David Jordan resigned as dean of the university's
School of Business, administrators wrote in a
University officials said the move would reduce administrative overhead and allow both programs to coordinate better with each other.
'A university-wide restructuring is essential to meet the fiscal and market demands of the moment,' the administrators wrote. 'Every business must learn to adapt and be agile in responding to external forces, and that is what Clark is doing.'
Administrators said the reductions would not negatively impact the 'highly personalized nature' of instruction at Clark, adding that the school will still aim for a student-faculty ratio of 10 to 1. That ratio stood at 8.5 to 1 in fall 2024, according to the Common Data Set.
Last year, Clark enrolled 430 students in the freshman class, according to the Common Data Set. That marked a sharp decline from the 637 first-year
students who enrolled
Advertisement
Clark is the latest small, private university to contract under enrollment pressures. Last year,
Citing low demand, Rhode Island College in Providence
Several other smaller schools
Camilo Fonseca can be reached at
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
15 hours ago
- New York Post
The wild scenario in which Caitlin Clark could be able to start her own league: Book author
Caitlin Clark's biographer and USA Today sports columnist, Christine Brennan, hinted that the WNBA superstar could start her own league if she really wanted to, helping to keep an ongoing conspiracy theory going. Brennan was appearing on ESPN LA to promote her book 'On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports' – an unauthorized biography about Clark – when the writer was asked by host John Ireland about the idea. 'Nike loves her. She's got Wilson, obviously. She's got Gatorade,' Brennan said. 'Even though the salary's $76,000 for a rookie — it's more this year now — she's making $28 million from Nike alone, according to the Wall Street Journal. So she's at $40 million, whatever. OK, fine, she's doing great. And if Nike said, 'We're going to make the Nike-Clark league,' it would obviously take a few years to get the arenas and whatever. 3 Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) cheers for her team during the first quarter against the Dallas Wings at the American Airlines Center. Jerome Miron-Imagn Images 'But you know the TV contract. I mean, it's Caitlin. Again, the TV viewership, it's Caitlin Clark. It's not Angel [Reese] and Caitlin. It's Cailtin. It's Caitlin Clark only. And I think Angel's a great rebounder and excellent at what she does, but she doesn't move the needle on TV ratings. It's Caitlin. And they could do it. I think they could absolutely put it together in a couple of years. And I'll stay on that because I agree with you. It's fascinating and it's doable because of the void in the vacuum of leadership the WNBA continues to exhibit.' Certainly, a lot has been made about Clark and her treatment since she joined the WNBA last year as the No. 1 overall pick and has become the biggest name in the league, selling out arenas and boosting television viewership. But Clark has been a lightning rod of controversy as debates have raged over whether she has been protected enough by the officials when she's been on the court and if she's taken an unfair brunt of the frustration from other WNBA players. But the idea isn't likely to go away, especially if the physical play continues against Clark. 3 Fans of Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) hold up signs during the first quarter against the Dallas Wings at the American Airlines Center. Jerome Miron-Imagn Images Clark did turn down an invite to join the startup 3-on-3 league, Unrivaled, which competes during the WNBA offseason. Brennan has been a source of controversy herself due to the framing of her coverage of the WNBA and Clark, and drew the ire of the WNBA Players Association over her line of questioning to DiJonai Carrington following an incident with Clark last season. 3 Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) looks around the defense of Seattle Storm forward Gabby Williams (5) during the first half of a WNBA basketball game Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Seattle. AP Clark has played in just nine of the Fever's 16 games this season because of injury and is currently out with a groin injury. She is averaging 18.2 points, 8.9 assists and 5.0 rebounds per contest and was named an All-Star game captain via fan votes.
5 days ago
Bipartisan bill seeks to ban Chinese AI from federal agencies
WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday vowed to keep Chinese artificial intelligence systems out of federal agencies while pledging to ensure the U.S. will prevail against China in the global AI competition. 'We are in a new Cold War, and AI is the strategic technology at the center,' Rep. John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on China, said as he opened a hearing on the matter. 'The future balance of power may very well be determined by who leads in AI.' The hearing on Capitol Hill comes about five months after a Chinese technology start-up called DeekSeek introduced an AI model that rivaled platforms from OpenAI and Google in performance, but cost only a fraction to build. This raised concerns that China was catching up to U.S. despite restrictions on chips and other key technologies used to develop AI. The ever-tighter race is now a central part of the U.S.-China rivalry. And so much is at stake that the U.S. must win, witnesses told the congressional panel. The two countries are 'in a long-term techno-security competition that will determine the shape of the global political order for the coming years,' said Thomas Mahnken, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Jack Clark, co-founder and head of policy at Anthropic, told the committee that AI has built-in values. 'I know that AI systems are a reflection of the societies that are built from. AI built in democracies will lead to better technology for all of humanity. AI built in authoritarian nations will... be inescapably intertwined and imbued with authoritarianism,' Clark said. 'We must take decisive action to ensure America prevails.' Earlier this year, Chris Lehane, OpenAI's head of global affairs, told reporters in Paris that the U.S. and China were the only two countries in the world that could build AI at scale. The competition, which he described as one between democratic AI and autocratic AI, is 'very real and very serious,' and the stakes are 'enormous,' he said, for 'the global rails of AI will be built by one of those two countries.' The 2025 AI Index Report by Stanford University's Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence center has the U.S. in the lead in producing top AI models. But the report notes China is rapidly closing the performance gap, reaching near parity in 2024 on several major benchmarks. It also shows that China leads in AI publications and patents. At the hearing, Clark urged the lawmakers to maintain and strengthen export controls of advanced chips to China. 'This competition fundamentally runs on compute,' he said. The U.S. must control the flow of powerful chips to China, Clark said, 'or else you're giving them the tools they will need to build powerful AI to harm American interests.' Mark Beall, Jr., president of government affairs at The AI Policy Network, said there are 'a number of very glaring gaps' in the U.S. export controls that have allowed China to obtain controlled chips. Lawmakers earlier this year introduced a bill to track such chips to ensure they would not be diverted to the wrong hands. In another legislative step, Republican and Democratic lawmakers in both the House and the Senate on Wednesday introduced a bill to ban Chinese AI systems in the federal government. 'The U.S. must draw a hard line: hostile AI systems have no business operating inside our government,' Moolenaar said. The No Adversarial AI Act, as proposed, seeks to identify AI systems developed by foreign adversaries and ban their use in the U.S. government, with exceptions for use in research and counter terrorism.
Boston Globe
5 days ago
- Boston Globe
Bipartisan bill seeks to ban Chinese AI from federal agencies, as US vows to win the AI race
Advertisement The ever-tighter race is now a central part of the US-China rivalry. And so much is at stake that the US must win, witnesses told the congressional panel. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The two countries are 'in a long-term techno-security competition that will determine the shape of the global political order for the coming years,' said Thomas Mahnken, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Jack Clark, co-founder and head of policy at Anthropic, told the committee that AI has built-in values. 'I know that AI systems are a reflection of the societies that are built from. AI built in democracies will lead to better technology for all of humanity. AI built in authoritarian nations will... be inescapably intertwined and imbued with authoritarianism,' Clark said. 'We must take decisive action to ensure America prevails.' Advertisement Earlier this year, Chris Lehane, OpenAI's head of global affairs, told reporters in Paris that the US and China were the only two countries in the world that could build AI at scale. The competition, which he described as one between democratic AI and autocratic AI, is 'very real and very serious,' and the stakes are 'enormous,' he said, for 'the global rails of AI will be built by one of those two countries.' The 2025 AI Index Report by Stanford University's Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence center has the US in the lead in producing top AI models. But the report notes China is rapidly closing the performance gap, reaching near parity in 2024 on several major benchmarks. It also shows that China leads in AI publications and patents. At the hearing, Clark urged the lawmakers to maintain and strengthen export controls of advanced chips to China. 'This competition fundamentally runs on compute,' he said. The US must control the flow of powerful chips to China, Clark said, 'or else you're giving them the tools they will need to build powerful AI to harm American interests.' Mark Beall, Jr., president of government affairs at The AI Policy Network, said there are 'a number of very glaring gaps' in the US export controls that have allowed China to obtain controlled chips. Lawmakers earlier this year introduced a bill to track such chips to ensure they would not be diverted to the wrong hands. In another legislative step, Republican and Democratic lawmakers in both the House and the Senate on Wednesday introduced a bill to ban Chinese AI systems in the federal government. Advertisement 'The US must draw a hard line: hostile AI systems have no business operating inside our government,' Moolenaar said. The No Adversarial AI Act, as proposed, seeks to identify AI systems developed by foreign adversaries and ban their use in the US government, with exceptions for use in research and counter terrorism.
