Give Back Lynchburg Day
Donation protected
The first goal is to beat this year’s Give Day amount: $270,465
If every alum from the past ten years donates $33, we would get to $270, 466!
Purpose
Our University will not survive under the leadership of President Alison Morrison-Shetlar and Vice President of Strategy Jeremy Welsh. This fund is to be received by the University of Lynchburg, formerly Lynchburg College, only under the condition of their resignation (ideally to be used for the re-hiring of staff and faculty). Should the President and Vice President decline to resign or if the Board of Trustees refuses to terminate their employment, all donations will instead go to the employees fired under her administration who are now struggling financially.
Instead of swearing off donations and attendance to the University, we can use collective action to support Lynchburg’s longevity. This hinges on the resignation of Alison Morrison-Shetlar and Jeremy Welsh.
Rationale & Information:
On May 30th, University of Lynchburg’s leadership (unreflective of the Lynchburg we know and love) announced the termination of several graduate programs and undergraduate minors and majors including Spanish, Theater, Music, and Physics. List of all eliminated programs. The University frames these decisions positively in its posts, saying that these moves are necessary because of a budget deficit and looming enrollment cliff. However, they do not share that the budget deficit has already been reduced in two years from 12 million to 4 million dollars, ahead of schedule and using measures already put in place.
More recently, Cardinal News has edited its report to include that the President's statement of having inherited the $12 million deficit from President Garren is incorrect. Rather, the University had a "balanced budget for the 2021 fiscal year (or a surplus, when including federal COVID aid funding.") Cardinal News Article.
This President says in a Forbes article: "Most of the faculty reductions will occur through retirements, attrition, or reassignment." This is not true. Employees were sent an email to attend a mandatory meeting the morning of the 30th. There were two meetings: one for faculty and one for staff. One faculty member (likely for expressing dissent) and all staff members were given until 5pm that day to pack up their offices. The letter they received states that their health benefits end May 31st. (There is some arrangement with COBRA, but employees are reimbursed for three months, not covered, and they have to sign a contract that is more concerned with protecting the University.) All non-tenure track faculty were told they had a year of employment left. All tenured professors of the eliminated programs were cut. The University claims 40 people were fired, but it is actually closer to 80 (80 does not include the people they fired before May 30th). These employees, in order to receive their severance pay, have to sign that they will not sue and that they “resigned.” News statements include the information that more cuts are expected in the coming years.
The administration claims that there were “months of review and in-depth analysis,” but if this is true, they have avoided revealing that data and analysis. They frame this as the only option, but, for one, there was a committee two years ago tasked with addressing the University’s 12 million deficit. Members had to sign an NDA and were told that their report would be released to the general faculty, but it never did. Instead, the administration released a summary with inaccuracies and did not follow through with the steps created in that report.
Even if money was not mismanaged and even if money could not be cut from other areas for University finances, the President's lies and handling of this mass layoff are inexcusable.
Why this is not scapegoating:
Faculty and staff, prior to May 30th, had grievances for how Alison Morrison-Shetlar was running the University, and there were discussions of a vote of no confidence. Many have been punished for speaking out with facts that were labelled “slander.” Several were fired and many left (the majority being women) because of this administration.
For example, two weeks after being enthusiastically asked to teach a longstanding course again, a professor expressed an opinion opposed to administration at a faculty meeting. Immediately afterward, this professor—an expert in her field—was informed that her services would no longer be needed and that she was being replaced by someone with no training or experience in this area of expertise.
Alison Morrison-Shetlar has rearranged administration so that she is insulated and supported. The President circumvented protocols to advance in rank Vice President of Strategy, formerly Associate Provost, Jeremy Welsh.
Faculty and staff emails are being more closely monitored now, presumably for who is “leaking” information, and a week before May 30th, the function to email all faculty and staff was removed. To send an email to all faculty and staff, the email had to get reviewed and approved first (reportedly unrelated to the mass layoffs).
Alison Morrison-Shetlar did not attend the meetings on the 30th, but rather, released two pre-recorded videos, one for the reveal of the “restructuring plan” and one to faculty, that claim these decisions had to be made to save the University. But this University no longer has the things that made it special: a liberal arts core and community focus.
Further grievances:
• Several of the fired staff members are now struggling to keep their homes/ apartments.
• Several among the fired faculty and staff were close to retiring. Some had a year until they retired. One had two months.
• Among the fired faculty and staff is a person whose spouse has severe dementia; they both no longer have health insurance now.
• Several employees' names were spelled wrong or not included at all in their severance package.
• The University claims only 5% of its undergraduates are being affected, but the entire culture on campus continues to change because of the leadership’s corporate mindset. The 5% estimate is also not true when we account for departments like theater that engage the community and involve more than just those who major in it.
• The administration has not been transparent with what will happen with the current students whose programs were cut. They do not say what “teaching out” looks like, now that their professors are gone, only that, the President says, “while some arts programs are being cut, the university is utilizing its different community partners . . ..”ABC 13 News Report
• Our anger at the May 30th mass layoffs was responded to with a university release in which we are called “emotional” and “misinformed.” University Response to our Outrage. Here, they also call the terminated programs “narrowly focused.”
• Several things—including how the President is currently on a university-funded trip to Argentina—suggest that the administration planned to ignore us.
• The remaining employees now feel little sense of security or community
As someone who attended this University and who wouldn’t trade this place or its people for anything, I want for Lynchburg to be a safe space again and I want it to have a future as the loving place we know it to be.
Faculty, staff, students, prospective students, parents, alumni, and allies,
Help me get our Lynchburg back?
With love,
Barb Yauss
Sources for Lynchburg announcements:
Organizer
Barbara Yauss
Organizer
Lynchburg, VA