Yale Will Fire Up To 300 Staff

Yale Daily News :

New projections on staff attrition indicate that as many as 300 employees could be laid off as Yale copes with the economic downturn, though administrators said today that the University will double severance benefits for those who lose their jobs in the next six months.

The grim economic outlook has forced the University to cut deeper into staff salaries, slating the equivalent of 500 to 600 positions for elimination. But in a letter to Yale managers today, Vice President for Human Resources and Administration Michael Peel said that the typical annual rate of attrition and turnover is only between 300 and 500. Since the gap cannot be closed by simply leaving open positions vacant, the difference will have to be made with some involuntary layoffs, administrators said.

Read the whole story: Yale Daily News

Comments

[keithdengenis]

Apparently, most of the comments missed the point of the story.

Who do you think is being let go? Professors? Yale U already pays the least. No, it won't be Assistant Professors...

Administrators? No, it won't be administrators - those positions are doled out based on nepotism and insider connections. Yale always looks after it's own(ed)...

It will be folks who live in greater New Haven who do the administration support work; clean; cook; property upkeep; etc...

Watching Yale behave in a predatory fashion is nothing new. Promoting a sense of economic insecurity is in their self interest. And, the folks who make decisions at Yale University (read: The Board of Governors) ONLY act in Yale's self interest - as short sighted and selfish as it has always been.

If anyone doubts that Yale is something other than a predatory, multinational corporation, just look at the size of their endowment and where the money is invested. Having endured life in New Haven, CT for 22 years, I can tell you first hand that Yale only acts in its won oppressive, classist, self interest.

[SecondBase]

"It will be folks who live in greater New Haven who do the administration support work; clean; cook; property upkeep; etc..."

So you're thinking the professors are going to mow the lawns and clear the snow?

This story is not about being a private school or an Ivy League institution. I've worked more than twenty years for two highly respected, large, and successful state-school universities, both of which are having the same kind of problems now.

Most every university in the country is in the same shape as Yale. The difference between state-schools and Yale can be found in the statement, "...administrators said today that the University will double severance benefits for those who lose their jobs in the next six months." Don't know how that constitutes "predatory" behavior - but you apparently have a 22-year axe to grind, so be my guest.

[whatawebb]

Close down Skull and Bones too!

[Mandark]

Get out the violins - it was Yale and its spinoffs like it's insidious Skull and Bones that have aided and abetted a bunch of losers, who have conspired to separate people from their money.

although the American people were complicit, they had to have leaders - Karma's a b***ch!

[SammyD]

running out of rich people? The charities are next. Those awful rich people who fund the best of America.

[magibrotherhood]

no sympathy for the spoiled ,pompous brats.

[SecondBase]

Well, if it's any concession, I'm sure they have no compassion for hate-filled losers either.

[magibrotherhood]

its the self-professed "geniuses" in the Ivy League business schools that DESIGNED this corrupt financial system.

[raker]

Exactly. Isn't it the ivies that turn out venal investment bankers like widgets on an assembly line? Blame the huge, wealthy institutions who are losing everything for the financial catastrophe. They failed to protect themselves and us by not policing banking and investment practices.

[Truby]

I wonder what positions will be eliminated? Teaching positions or support personnel? Huge endowments provide these schools with the ability to weather downturns without such action but since the introduction of "smart business tactics" such behavior is shunned. Employing the tactics used to manage big business will be the end of quality education in our country.

[SecondBase]

I wouldn't be surprised if assistant-­professors got hit hard by this - the non-tenured phds who are typically responsible for a surprisingly substantial percentage of the teaching load.

[marijam]

That's BS, if ever there were a time that endowment money should be spent, it's now.

[skatscan]

Most of those that give endowments are rich enough, even now to continue the endowments. But since the rich are such fickle consumers of money the only way to get them to contribute to the recovery is to, yes, raise taxes.

[americanalien]

I don't care for the Ivies. They only cater to a tiny elitist segment of society. Let them save themselves. Tell me if a public university is going under, that's the bigger concern.

[palindrom]

"They only cater to a tiny elitist segment of society. " That's simply not true -- all except maybe one have need-blind admissions and recruit strong students of all classes. They're expensive, but that's the "sticker price" that you're asked to pay if you can afford it. There's actually a case to be made for raising the tuition to say, a million dollars -- and giving nearly everyone a huge financial aid package. That way the super-rich would truly pay their share.

Another thing. Institutions like Harvard have huge endowments, which you'd think would insulate them from the recession. The opposite is true. The endowments are supposed to be there in perpetuity, and typically only 5% of the endowment can be spent each year, with long-term growth supposedly increasing it very slightly in net. But when the endowment plunges, as they all have, this source of operations funding dries up. This is why these rich institutions, all of which are dependent on endowment returns, are in such trouble and are having to cut costs. I'm surprised HuffPo readers haven't picked up on the real story here -- hundreds more people fired.

[magibrotherhood]

All this Super-wealth is OBNOXIOUS-----the only thing in perpetuity at these places is their collosal GREED.

[GPC]

What's the matter all the war profiteer members of skull & bones won't let go ofany of their money. Oh thats right, that would be socialism

[palindrom]

The bitterness in the comments about the Ivy League surprises and saddens me. I teach in an Ivy League school, and I see lots of fantastic, public-spirited students. I have a nephew and a niece who went to Yale and Harvard -- one is a human-rights lawyer and the other an early childhood education specialist. Both are deeply admirable people who are doing their bit to improve the world. Barack Obama himself went to Columbia and Harvard. Stereotypes may be "a real time saver" as the Onion says, but they're deeply unjust.

[000Jade000]

There is a lot of injustice in the world. Ivy league schools epitomize that injustice, and that's why you don't see many sympathetic comments here.

[palindrom]

I see your point, but I think there are other institutions that are far more culpable for the predicament in which we find ourselves. As an example, nearly all the Ivies have need-blind admissions -- they guarantee that if a student is admitted, the school will find enough financial aid to make it possible for the student to attend. This is not just lip-service -- maintaining this is a high priority even in the economic downturn. All the Ivies make a strong effort to find qualified students from a wide range of ethnic and socioeconomic groups, not just because they're told to but because it's the right thing to do. They all try to expose the students to a wide range of perspectives and broaden their thinking. Obviously, it doesn't always work -- but we try!!

[rabiddog6708]

Shucks. I was just about to submit an application. Oh, well, there's always Harvard.

[BankerTee]

Don't gloat! There are clearly many of you who resent those that attended Ivy Leagues, either because you couldn't afford it or because you simply weren't smart enough to attend. No person or institution is perfect, regardless of how many smart people it embodies.

This economic issue transcends any institution - financial or educational. Yale and its contemporaries will be back, and stronger. It is as the old adage goes: it is not about how many times you fall (because fall, you will); it is about how many times you get up after each fall.

[motoGpifupleez]

After the "Real World" example of the achievements ofYale graduate George W. Bush, they should fire everyone responsible for his "Education".

[xargaw]

And Harvard Business School should be next.

[loki]

They are also responsible for 99% of those responsible for every economical down turn and collapse in the USA since 1900. They should close all the Ivy greed schools and prevent anyone who ever set foot in any of these schools from anything to do with economical or political positions of any power. From bank janitor to working at the DMV, they should never be allowed to have any influence in our country or any other ever again. Like I said, they, the Ivy Greed educated, have been at the helm of every single problem that has a huge effect on the United States and the world. They should not be allowed to ever do that again.

[tralfas]

Didn't Obama go to an Ivy Greed school?