Eighteen employees were laid off this week from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, officials said.
In an email from Martial Hebert, the dean of the school, stated that staff positions in several departments, academic support function and administrative positions had been eliminated, “including marketing and communications, program support, computing support and outreach,” the email said.
All individuals whose positions were terminated had been informed of the decision on Tuesday, prior to the email being sent out.
Carnegie Mellon spokespeople would not comment on if employees were made aware prior to going into the office for the day.
Faculty were not a part of the layoffs and those terminated will receive 30 days, pay for unused vacation and were also offered severance based on years of service, said Cassia Crogan a spokeswomen for the university on Thursday.
“We want to clarify that this was a unit-level decision—not part of any university-wide restructuring. The university has not undertaken any other broad layoffs or reorganizations of comparable scope to date this year. The decisions within SCS reflect the routine and localized process of evaluating budgets and personnel needs within individual schools and colleges,” she said in a statement to TribLive.
The announcement also stated that there would be a reorganization of the School of Computer Science as department employees should expect a “reassigning [to] multiple staff in order to better address our priorities going forward.”
CMU did not respond to specific questions about what the reorganization will look like and how it will impact employee pay.
Hebert’s email pointed faculty to a letter from President Farnam Jahanian to the Carnegie Mellon community in March stating that “higher education is facing significant financial and societal pressures.”
Jahanian’s letter stated that CMU was proactively assessing their budgets, spending and hiring decisions.
”The potential harm to our national research and innovation enterprise is real. We are acting in concert with our peers to amplify the impact of our research on societal well-being and our national security and to convey this value to our elected officials,” the letter said.
Jahanian also outlined the limitations of endowment funds, which support 9% of the university’s overall operating budget, to specific items such as scholarships and professorships.
“I am confident that these decisions represent an accurate and essential assessment of our priorities and will help ensure that SCS remains positioned for sustained success in the years ahead. They are the product of careful evaluation, engagement with leadership across the school, and a commitment to balancing our long-term stability with the needs of our people and programs,” Hebert said.
