News analysis: WIU breaks down impact of layoffs

Students are back on campus at Western Illinois University in Macomb, but the Fall enrollment of about 6,000 remains much lower that 7,800 in 2019, much less than 12,000-plus in 2010. What used to be sidewalks crowded with students between classroom buildings is about as bustling as closing time at a library.

In fact, Western’s library was one of the hardest-hit departments, losing eight tenured and tenure-track faculty and one contingent teacher who worked on a reewable annual contract.

Seeking to address a $10 million budget deficit, WIU’s Board of Trustees last month approved its administration laying off 124 workers – about one-fourth of the number of workers represented by the University Professionals of Illinois union, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers.

WIU said those losing their jobs are 32 staff jobs, 57 faculty and another 35 adjunct instructors notified this summer.

Besides the library, other job losses across the University, according to WIU, include seven in Computer Sciences; eight in Accounting, Finance, Economics and Decision Sciences; nine in Management and Marketing; and 11 in Communication and Media (all including tenured/ tenure-track and staff. Twenty departments have fewer employees; personnel from Athlettics and the Office of Public Safety were apparently spared.

Elsewhere, 16 faculty and staff positions from the Quad Cities campus in Moline will move to the Macomb campus.

The overall employment cuts this year are almost 8% of the workforce from a year ago.

Other WIU administrations and Boards of Trustees have tried layoffs before, to inadequate results, for eight years. In 2016 WIU cut 147 workers, including 30 faculty; in 2018 another 24 faulty members were let go, along with 2 academic staffers; and in 2019 Western laid off an additional 132 workers.

Student enrollment didn’t stabilize, much less rebound to a student body consistently numbering more than 10,000 before 2016.

Meanwhile, all department budgets reportedly were cut at least 25%, and at WIU’s Quad Cities campus – which has shifted to a focus on regional workforce development -- some degrees will be earned via online-only instruction after this year.

Some administrators concede that recruiting and retaining students must improve.

However, a Marketing Associate was among those laid off.