AMHERST — Faculty members at Hampshire College say that overspending by college leaders, rather than student enrollment projections falling short, is what led to decisions by the administration to cut employee retirement benefits. They also contend that layoffs will disproportionately affect core academic programs on campus, despite the college saying otherwise.

In a guest column printed in the Daily Hampshire Gazette Friday, the faculty take issue with the administration’s contention that the college not meeting an anticipated 1,200-student enrollment was the reason for reducing retirement benefits. The column was authored by both the Executive Committee of the Faculty, chaired by Jennifer Bajorek, professor of comparative literature and visual studies, and the Leadership Team of the Hampshire College Advocacy Chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

They instead point out that the college’s $1.4 million in spending over the previous year’s budget was known in January, five months before the number of students who would be attending Hampshire, at just over 900, was determined.

“We believe that the timing of the administration’s decision to cut employee compensation by cutting retirement benefits, which was prepared over several months before it was announced, and which was announced on a date three weeks before fall 2024 student numbers were known, makes it clear that student numbers were not the driving factor behind this decision,” the letter reads. “Indeed, it strongly suggests that poor budget management played a larger role.”

College President Ed Wingenbach, speaking via phone Friday afternoon, said he sympathizes with what faculty are dealing with. “It’s a hard position to be in to have compensation affected and to have colleagues you care about leaving the college,” Wingenbach said.

But he said there are three separate issues affecting decisions that have been made in recent weeks.

The first was last year’s budget and the need to bring the overspending in line. In the end, the budget was less than $1 million overspent, “not an unreasonable place to end up, with inflation,” he said.

Second, when building the budget for the next academic year, administrators struggled to meet the target number, which led to the decision to cut retirement benefits.

Finally, when it was understood that expenses and revenues wouldn’t match by the 2026-2027 school year, positions had to be cut.

The column from the professors also serves as a critique of the college’s argument that decisions have been made for “prioritizing the core academic program,” with the college citing that 29 jobs, or 9% of all employees and 13% of all staff, are being lost.

The college has said that structural changes in staff is achieving $2.7 million in operational savings, by combining divisions and functions, decreasing administrative layers and complexity, consolidating college functions where duplication exists and bolstering the effectiveness of antiracist initiatives.

The college also says it is reducing barriers to collaboration across divisions and supporting improvements in student retention. The Enrollment, Financial Aid, Advancement and Events Services departments are being consolidated into a new division of Institutional Support.

The faculty members, though, observe that Academic Affairs saw almost one quarter of its staff laid off.

“We believe that layoffs impacting the Division of Academic Affairs at a rate that is more than double that of layoffs in other divisions cannot accurately be described as ‘prioritizing’ the academic program,” the faculty letter states.

Wingenbach said work will get done slower in direct program support, but the college is adding seven new faculty members. “Fundamentally, the courses available to students and support they get through advising, none of that is impacted,” Wingenbach said.

A third point brought up in the commentary by faculty is that while senior staff members’ salaries are being cut, as has been reported, these senior administrative salaries were increased during the 2022 to 2023 fiscal years, even as the college was running a deficit. That same year, faculty teaching load was increased with no added compensation or reduced teaching and advising-related responsibilities.

“In May 2024, immediately after President Ed Wingenbach announced his plan to balance the budget by cutting our compensation further, in the form of cutting retirement benefits, Hampshire College faculty demanded that senior administration agree to across-the-board salary reductions for all senior administrators, at a set percentage, before considering further cuts to compensation in the form of cuts to retirement benefits,” the faculty wrote. “Senior administration did not agree to this demand.”

The 900 or so students who will be at Hampshire this fall is lower than projected, but enrollment has steadily climbed over the past three years, growing from 500 students in 2022 to 700 students in 2023-2024.

Wingenbach said the college remains on a trajectory to being healthy, sustainable and viable, but just not as quickly as it had initially hoped.