Brookdale Community College in Lincroft will lay off 210 employees next summer, according to a report by the Asbury Park Press.
About 250 staffers, students and alumni packed a “boisterous” hearing to protest the move on Thursday, according to the report. But the school’s board of trustees, citing a growing budget hole, approved the layoffs, which are to be followed by new hirings, app.com reports.
From app.com:
Brookdale President Maureen Murphy said the plan is needed to fill a drop in operating revenue of some $14.7 million since 2011, including a $5.7-million decline in tuition.
“We are in a situation that no one could envision,” she said.
County funding has decreased by $9.4 million and state funding by $393,000 in that three-year period, she said.
Brookdale has suffered from a decline in enrollment in the last few years, as have other community colleges around New Jersey. The student body stood at 14,144 this fall, down from 15,783 four years ago.
Although the plan calls for eliminating 210 jobs, 126 new positions will be added. Some will be filled with laid-off staff. The first layoffs would occur in July 2015 if the plan is approved. Brookdale currently has 646 staff.
The net loss of positions will be 51 if the plan gets approved, Murphy said.
There’s also this quote:
“In the last two years, I feel like I’ve been devalued, like I have a target on my back that’s a dollar sign,” said Art Marshall, a professor of education and sociology who has worked at Brookdale for 46 years. “I have a feeling that the college is being dismantled.”
