Editorial: Why did trimming executives take IUP so long?

Indiana University of Pennsylvania is making some staffing cuts.

When this happens, people often expect to see the pain start at the bottom. Cut a few new hires. Freeze approval of replacements. Encourage some retirements. Let some openings go through attrition.

It’s common in business. It’s very common in education, where school boards frequently let a combination of unreplaced retirees and consolidated classrooms make up for out-and-out firing. But jobs at the top? They may be more safe.

But IUP just chopped five executive jobs.

The titles sound lofty. Vice president of enrollment management. Vice president of university advancement. Chief marketing officer. Associate vice president for human resources. Associate vice president for academic administration.

University President Michael Driscoll discussed the changes in a letter to the campus, noting “dramatic changes both internally and externally” that require “progress toward student-centeredness and financial sustainability.”

Yeah, that’s the kind of corporate relations double-speak that says a lot and yet almost nothing at the same time.

Amid a pile of buzzword phrases liek “streamlined experience,” “simplify structures” and “enhance collaboration” was the true heart of it all. “Reduce expenses.”

IUP, like its fellow Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education universities, is in the midst of a downturn in enrollment that is not accompanied by a corresponding dip in expenses. From 2010 to 2022, the college has seen a 42% drop in students choosing to be Crimson Hawks.

That does kind of seem like an issue affecting enrollment management, university advancement and marketing, doesn’t it?

It isn’t that the jobs being done by those five executives won’t be done. The new work flow was noted. It will all redirect to other people already in place, including Driscoll. The idea, he said, is to “eliminate silos and lead to fewer and simpler processes.”

In other words, the university had too many cooks in the kitchen. Or perhaps more correctly, too many chefs when the line cooks and dishwashers were the ones getting the work done.

The real question is why was this done now instead of years ago. In 2021, the university culled 81 faculty jobs. Another 111 were lost over the preceding two years, and that doesn’t count retirement and unrenewed temporary contracts. Entire departments have been shuttered.

The declining enrollment is not new. It’s been a not-so-slow leak for years. But with close to half the enrollment gone, now it’s time to finally look at consolidating administration?

It’s a long overdue move that won’t affect students the same way loss of educators will. No one has ever chosen their alma mater based on who the associate vice president of anything is. It’s something every university — and definitely every State System school — should already be doing.