U-M Dearborn faces course cuts, faculty layoffs amid budgetary challenges

University of Michigan-Dearborn students and faculty at the College of Arts, Sciences and Letters will see class size increases, course cuts and section consolidations for the winter 2025 semester, according to a Tuesday morning press release from the Lecturers’ Employers Organization. These cuts have also resulted in layoffs of non-tenure track faculty that are a part of LEO.

Jamie Wraight, LEO chair of U-M Dearborn, heard that the University was looking to cut classes about two weeks ago. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Wright said this is a common occurrence at the Dearborn campus, but Wright heard the cuts were larger than normal in a meeting with the Department of Language, Culture, and the Arts. 

“One of the (sections) actually doubled the course cap, or doubled the enrollment,” Wraight said. “That’s how most of us began to really hear that this was going to be kind of deeper cuts than what we’re used to seeing this time of year — much deeper, a lot deeper, I think somebody used the word unprecedented — and that it was going to affect more than just one or two disciplines.”

Kirsten Herold, president of the LEO, said these changes demonstrate a lack of investment in the liberal arts. 

“This all speaks to a de-emphasis of the liberal arts on the Dearborn campus,” Herold wrote. “Apparently it is no longer important for students to learn writing, history or political science. It is all very short-sighted. Honors courses have seen course caps raised from 15 to 30 students. Dearborn students and parents chose to enroll based on small class sizes. These changes will only exacerbate enrollment declines and the quality of instruction for students.

U-M Dearborn students started a petition against these administrative change, which will result in zero change in pay for faculty despite larger class sizes, according to the petition. The petition had received 407 signatures as of Nov. 27. 

Wraight emphasized that the changes, which include upper-level course cancellations in the Philosophy and History Departments and a lower faculty-to-student ratio, would affect the quality of the students’ education.

“Not only is it an increase in workload, but it’s going to have an extremely negative effect on our students,” Wraight said. “Our students have lots of other outside things they have to do. They have family obligations. They have jobs. They’re trying to juggle two or three different things. So say they go ahead, and they’ve signed up for the whole course for next semester. Now, all of a sudden, they find out that (the) course has been canceled, and they’re given an option of taking the course in another modality or at another time.”

Article 28 of LEO’s contract states that U-M administration cannot make big changes to a faculty member’s workload without fair warning. For a change made during the fall semester, the warning must be given in March, according to the 2021-2024 LEO agreement. Wraight said LEO has not received much communication from the administration about these budget cuts, which they attribute to the Thanksgiving break. 

“We were working behind the scenes to do as much as we could, but we can’t really get any relief, or we can’t get any answers from the college because nobody’s there, so it’s just been incredibly frustrating,” Wraight said. 

Wraight said  U-M Dearborn has told many faculty members that while they will have more students, the number of courses they teach will remain the same.

“What they have said is that, ‘Yes, you will have more students, but you can now just assign fewer assignments so your workload won’t be changing,’” Wraight said.

Kenneth Kettenbeil, the U-M Dearborn vice chancellor for external relations, wrote in an email to The Daily that the College is working with faculty to address ongoing budgetary challenges.

“The College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters is experiencing challenging financial times, like many liberal arts colleges across the country,” Kettenbeil wrote. “The college is considering a variety of options (some of which are more difficult than others) and all options are taken very seriously due to their potential impact on the livelihoods of our employees and impact on students. Consideration and discussion continues in the college and final decisions have not been made. The administration will work closely with college faculty and staff, in a collaborative manner, to seek input on proposed actions as we all work together to address the budgetary challenges ahead of us.”

Daily News Editor Sneha Dhandapani can be reached at sdhanda@umich.edu. 

The post U-M Dearborn faces course cuts, faculty layoffs amid budgetary challenges appeared first on The Michigan Daily.