St. Michael's cuts staff due to budget deficit

Correction: St. Michael's College faced a $1.5 million deficit in 2016. That number was incorrect in an earlier version of the story.

Financial troubles continue to plague St. Michael's College, according to The Defender, the college's student-run newspaper.

Micalee Sullivan, instructor of history and director of the Center of Women and Gender, and Joan Wagner, director of the Community of Engaged Learning and coordinator for Experiential Learning on campus, were cut before the academic year began, due to lower than anticipated enrollment, the Defender reported.

Last year, St. Michael's faced a $1.5 million deficit because 29 tuition-paying students didn't show up in August 2016. Budget adjustments including staff and faculty buyouts were predicted. 

Related: St. Michael's faces $1.5 million deficit

Karen Talentino, vice president for academic affairs, stated that the administration had to balance expenses with student tuition levels.

"In my case, this had to come through position eliminations," Talentino wrote Wednesday. "In both cases, we have put people and processes in place that will maintain the activities of respective offices of the college."

Future layoffs are unknown, according to Talentino.

"It will be important to continue to reduce the size of our faculty so that it is in line with our student enrollments," Talentino wrote. "The student-faculty ratio will remain similar, even with this reduction in faculty size."

Tenured faculty will not be effected unless the school eliminates their department or declares financial necessity, according to the Defender.

Wagner and Sullivan were appointed to their positions in October 2015. Wagner received her Bachelor's degree from the college in 1989, according to a 2015 statement from St. Michael's. 

School Statistics taken from Forbes 2017 college ranking:

Total student population: 2,367

Undergraduate population: 1,997

Total annual cost per student: $53,905, including $40,750 tuition.

Contact Nicole Higgins DeSmet at ndesmet@freepressmedia.com or 802-660-1845. Follow her on Twitter @NicoleHDeSmet.