Baldwin Wallace Announces Layoffs, Program Cuts to Address $18.5 Million Budget Deficit

Faced with a nearly $20 million budget deficit, Baldwin Wallace University yesterday announced layoffs, program cuts and other measures it will undertake to bring its books into balance.

"Like many universities across our country, both large and small, BW must always work to maintain a balanced budget," the university said in a release. "During the past two years we have operated with budget deficits, which we cannot continue to do. To address the operating deficit, we have looked at every area of the university over the past few months to ensure that we are operating as cost-effectively as possible. As a tuition-driven institution, it is imperative that we are operating efficiently so that every possible resource can be devoted directly to the student experience."


A hiring freeze instituted in Sept. 2023 will continue through the end of 2024, 23 full and part-time staff and non-tenured faculty will be laid off, and 13 programs will be organized or eliminated, among other moves meant to trim expenses.

Earlier this year, BW began assessing how to solve what at the time it thought was a $3 million deficit, a product of nationwide pressures on small, private schools due to rising costs and decreased revenue from enrollment. Following the hire of a new CFO, however, the school discovered the deficit was far larger — $20 million. The news brought turmoil to faculty and the student body, both understandably nervous about what drastic cuts awaited and how they would effect the university.

Consultants were hired as the board scrambled to find a solution. And even as school officials told reporters, including at the student-run paper The Exponent, that no firm plans were in place last fall to exact cuts on programs, everyone saw the writing on the wall.

“The reality is we’ve been outperforming our market," Scott Schulz, BW's vice president for enrollment management, told The Exponent. "We’re number one, you can’t be a lot more than number one or higher than that. Realistically, you’re not going to grow your way out of a budget situation.”

The university this week said it will continue working on recruitment to boost enrollment numbers along with planned reductions in expenses, but that investment will also arrive in areas that make "BW a great choice for a college education."

“We had a problem that was not discovered that grew larger and now we have to take what is definitely drastic action to fix it," Interim Provost Tom Sutton told The Exponent after a faculty forum earlier this week, "but if we had started working on this or knew about it five years ago, some decisions would have been different which might have avoided some of what we’re talking about."


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