Cleveland State University’s fall semester is beginning without some familiar faces on its downtown campus.
Missing will be 27 faculty members and 27 staff members who have agreed to leave under a buyout program.
Earlier this year, the university offered full-time employees with at least 10 years of service a chance to leave with a one-time lump sum payment equal to up to one year of their annual salaries. The university said it could save millions of dollars in coming years by doing so. In turn, that could help reduce a projected $40 million budget shortfall.
These figures, released to Signal Cleveland, equate to about 8% of the 332 eligible faculty members and 7% of the 391 eligible staff. Cleveland State employed about 525 full-time educators and more than 900 full-time staff before these most recent buyouts.
Those numbers could rise because other employees still have time to decide to take the buyouts.
“It’s hard to say goodbye to cherished colleagues,” President Laura Bloomberg said in an interview on Friday. “It just is. And yet, we will do it. Hopefully, we will keep them close, even as they depart.”
Cleveland State board approves boosting buyout spending
Initially, Cleveland State leaders expected to use up to $9 million of reserves to cover the financial packages offered to those leaving.
But at a meeting Thursday, the university’s board of trustees approved tapping an additional $6 million of reserves to cover more buyouts.
Trustees estimated the upfront buyout costs could be as high as $16.2 million.
Recent layoffs hit departments across university
Independent of the buyouts, Cleveland State also laid off 14 staff employees last week.
University officials told Signal Cleveland on Monday that the move could save the university about $1.1 million.
They also detailed the departments affected by those campus-wide reductions. The list includes Academic Affairs, Human Resources, the College of Health, the Mandel Honors College and Student Belonging and Success.
