面对入学人数下降，克拉克大学将在未来三年内裁减多达 30% 的教职员工
【中美创新时报2025 年 6 月 7 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）克拉克大学是最新一所面临招生困难的大学，这所位于伍斯特的学校本周表示，将 减少 多达 30% 的教职员工，冻结员工招聘，并全面审查其学术课程。《波士顿环球报》记者卡米洛·丰塞卡对此作了下述报道。
大学官员在一份声明中表示，连续第二年，新生入学人数 比预期少了约 100 人。
管理人员表示，此次重组是“大胆战略计划”的一部分，旨在解决高等教育面临的“前所未有的压力”，例如不断增加的成本和联邦政策日益增加的不确定性。
“包括克拉克大学在内的整个高等教育领域正处于一个关键的转折点，”校长戴维·菲西安说道。“我们没有简单地将这一挑战性时刻视为预算约束的应对之策，而是着眼长远，充分利用克拉克大学目前的优势和优势，为学生提供更具吸引力的未来体验。”
管理人员表示，未来三年教职员工数量将减少25%至30%。他们表示，退休人员和自愿离职人员的工资将用于实现目标削减，之后才会考虑裁减非终身教职人员、未获得终身教职人员和兼职教职人员。
教务长约翰·马吉在声明中表示，现在判断终身教职人员是否会受到影响还“为时过早”。
根据追踪大学人口统计数据的通用数据集，克拉克大学去年雇用了 228 名全职教学教师和 101 名兼职教学教师。
代表全职教师的美国大学教授协会克拉克分会没有立即回复置评请求。
管理人员表示，作为明年 5% 裁员计划的一部分，该大学还将冻结员工招聘。
管理人员还表示，入学人数少的专业将被取消，并新增专业、课程和方向。学校将重新调整课程重点，将其重点放在三个“与满足不断变化的世界需求最相关”的领域：气候、环境与社会；媒体艺术、计算与设计；以及健康与人类行为。
周四，学校管理人员在一封信中写道，在宣布根据新的战略计划商学院将并入专业研究学院后，大卫·乔丹辞去了该校 商学院院长一职。
大学官员表示，此举将减少行政开销，并使两个项目能够更好地相互协调。
“为了满足当前的财政和市场需求，全校范围的重组至关重要，”管理人员写道。“每个企业都必须学会适应并灵活应对外部力量，而这正是克拉克大学正在做的事情。”
管理人员表示，裁员不会对克拉克学院“高度个性化”的教学产生负面影响，并补充说，学校仍将努力实现 10:1 的师生比例。根据通用数据集，到 2024 年秋季，该比例将达到 8.5:1。
根据通用数据集（Common Data Set）的数据，克拉克大学去年招收了430名新生。与前一年 637名新生相比，这一数字大幅下降，与2026届相比也下降了近40%。2026届新生人数为705人，是该校历史上最大的新生班。
该大学也感受到了特朗普政府打击国际学生政策带来的不确定性。据《纽约时报》分析，克拉克大学2023年招收的研究生中，超过四分之三来自美国以外，这一比例在全美名列前茅。
克拉克学院是最新一所因招生压力而裁员的小型私立大学。去年，爱默生学院因预算紧缩和招生人数下降而裁员10名员工。该学院表示，预算紧缩和招生人数下降是由于校园内亲巴勒斯坦示威活动和逮捕事件引发的强烈抗议。
由于需求低迷，普罗维登斯的罗德岛学院宣布计划暂停 20 个学位课程并合并其他 15 个课程。
由于入学人数下降，其他几所规模较小的学校要么搬迁，要么完全关闭，例如昆西的东方拿撒勒学院和西蒙岩的巴德学院。
题图：克拉克大学的校园。Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
附原英文报道：
Facing declining enrollment, Clark University to reduce faculty by as much as 30 percent over next three years
By Camilo Fonseca Globe Staff,Updated June 6, 2025
The camous of Clark University. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
Clark University is the latest institution to face an enrollment crunch, as the Worcester school said this week it would reduce its faculty by as much as 30 percent, freeze staff hiring, and comprehensively review its academic offerings.
For the second year in a row, enrollment for the incoming class was about 100 students below projections, university officials said in a statement.
Administrators said the restructuring is part of a “bold strategic plan” that will address “unprecedented pressures” facing higher education, such increasing costs and growing uncertainty over federal policy.
“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.”
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.
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.
David Jordan resigned as dean of the university’s School of Business, administrators wrote in a letter on Thursday, after it was announced it would be folded into the School of Professional Studies under the new strategic plan.
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 the previous year — and a decline of nearly 40 percentfrom the class of 2026, which at 705 was the largest freshman class in the university’s history.
The university is also feeling the uncertainty generated by the Trump administration’s crackdown on international students. More than three-quarters of Clark’s graduate student enrollment in 2023 came from outside the US, one of the highest proportions in the country, according to a New York Times analysis.
Clark is the latest small, private university to contract under enrollment pressures. Last year, Emerson College laid off 10 staff members due to a budget crunch and drop in enrollment, which the college said was fueled by backlash over pro-Palestinian demonstrations and arrests on campus.
Citing low demand, Rhode Island College in Providence announced plans to suspend 20 degree programs and consolidate 15 others.
Several other smaller schools have either moved or closed entirely due to falling enrollment, such as Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy and Bard College at Simon’s Rock.
