Emerson Colleges announces upcoming layoffs, links declining enrollment to protests

Police and pro-Palestinian supporters clash after the Palestinian protest camp at Emerson College was evacuated by police in Boston around 2 a.m. Thursday. (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

Emerson College faces possible staff and faculty reductions in the coming year following an enrollment decline that the university’s president linked to ‘negative’ messages from pro-Palestinian protesters and the failures of the FAFSA process this year, an internal email indicates.

“Now that the College’s application deadline for this year has passed, we want to share with our community that our projected freshman class size for fall 2024 is significantly smaller than we had hoped,” President Jay Bernhardt wrote in a statement. internal email to faculty and staff.

Because of this decline, the letter said, the college will limit staff and faculty searches next year, review existing programs and offerings and eliminate filled and vacant positions. The administration could also “potentially reduce some faculty positions.”

Bernhardt attributed the reduction to factors “including the national enrollment trend away from small private institutions, an enrollment filing delay in response to the new FAFSA rollout, student protests targeting our performance events and our campus visits, and the negative press and social media generated by the protests and arrests. »

Emerson students set up a pro-Palestinian encampment across from Boston Common in late April. On April 25, 118 protesters were arrested when Boston and state police moved in to dismantle the Boylston Place Alley encampment, citing city ordinances prohibiting camping on public property.

Camp protests and arrests took place at several nearby colleges, including Northeastern, Harvard and MIT.

Emerson College releases the final round of admissions decisions around mid-March and sets a decision submission deadline of June 1 for applicants who have not made an early decision.

The decline in enrollment is expected to last “a year,” Bernhardt said, but it will have a ripple effect on the school’s budget through losses in tuition and housing.

According to the latest available data, Emerson enrolled a total of 4,149 undergraduate students in fall 2022, 4,117 in fall 2021, and 3,708 in fall 2020. Emerson did not comment on the number of students expected to be enrolled in the coming year.

The average net cost is around $50,000 for undergraduates.