Evangel University announced today it will reduce the size of its workforce by 5.8 percent, including layoffs next month.
Twelve staff members will be laid off effective Jan 3., with benefits and salaries continuing through the end of that month. Six faculty contracts will not be renewed for the 2014-15 academic year, and seven vacant staff positions will not be filled, bringing total position reductions to 25 across multiple departments, according to a news release.
The news comes as the embattled private university adjusts to its consolidation with Assemblies of God Theological Seminary and Central Bible College and its new leader dips her toes in the water as 40-year President Robert Spence prepares to retire in the spring.
Evangel President-elect and CEO Carol Taylor, who takes over fully in May, said in the release the staff reductions are necessary as the university faces some $30 million in combined debt. In addition, Taylor led reductions in other operating expenses, resulting in more than $1 million in budget adjustments, or a 2.7 percent decrease in the school's operating budget, the release said.
"Combining the budgets of the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, Central Bible College and Evangel University during the process of consolidating the schools revealed operational deficits that had to be addressed,” Taylor said in the release of the university that now has more than 2,500 students from 48 states and abroad.
The consolidation was approved by the North Central Association's Higher Learning Commission in
April, the month after Taylor was selected as the first female president of Evangel.
Taylor came to Evangel from Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, Calif., where she was tasked as president with facing down a $32 million debt load. The California university now operates in the black.[[In-content Ad]]
