Students at Colorado State University-Pueblo would not be impacted as a result of the current 25-position reduction in staff, President Tim Mottet said Friday.

Mottet said degree or class offerings would not change, though Joanne Gula, an assistant professor in the mass communications program whose job will be eliminated, doesn’t agree with his assessment.

A total of 16 positions are affected through voluntary retirement, separation incentives and non-replacement of vacant positions.

The remaining eight will be nonvoluntary cuts that include four positions in the mass communications department, three in the Center for International Programs and one in engineering and physics.

Mottet said four tenure track faculty in the mass communications department would not have contracts renewed.

“These are teachers who have given their time and energy,” Mottet said.

Mottet said that enrollment has been declining in mass communications over the past few years.

“The dean and the provost are going to be working with an external consultant to re-examine the academic programming taking place in mass communications,” Mottet said.

“We are going to develop a new plan moving forward that we think is going to reflect where mass communications is today.”

Mottet said the curriculum needs to be assessed in the department.

“When your enrollment is dropping at that rate that is a sign that we need to go back and re-evaluate what’s going on.”

Gula, who teaches all the advanced advertising classes, said, “Students will most definitely be impacted.”

Gula and the other three mass comm faculty to be cut have a terminal year before their jobs end.

“This is basically half of the mass communications department. What happens to the students?” Gula asked Friday.

“We get a terminal contract and all my classes are filled for the fall. All four of the cuts are female professors. I believe this is extremely unfair and unfair to the students,” she said.

Gula said she and her colleagues are furious.

“The students are upset. They are crying. They don’t know how they are going to finish their degrees. They are sending us all emails. They are worried,” Gula said.

Gula said several public relations courses, as well as journalism and advertising courses, would be impacted, as well as the school’s Today Newspaper lab.

“It’s basically just leaving the radio program,” Gula said.

Conversations about the staff cuts started in July.

“The enrollment (across CSU-Pueblo) has been dropping over the last several years, and what we are doing is making sure that our faculty-to-student ratios are at more of a national average,” Mottet said. "So, we are using attrition and we are using an incentivized program for faculty to leave as a way to right size the institution.

“The majority of the work we are doing has been voluntary and through attrition.”

Mottet said students won’t feel the impact because the school is only allowing people to leave in areas where it is strategic.

The current average national student to teacher ratio is 18-1. Mottet said currently CSU-Pueblo’s ratio is 14-1.

“Our students are going to be receiving instruction closer to the national average. We are better than the national average but from a financial sustainability prospective, we need to closer to what is considered a best practice which is closer to the national average,” he said.

Through these reductions, the university would reduce expenses by $2.6 million, which includes departmental and operational expenses and capitalizing on faculty buyouts from external grants.

The President’s Budget Advisory Council is reviewing how to balance the remainder of the deficit.

“We are cutting in some areas and we are strategically growing the university in other areas,” he said.

Mottet said the university is looking at restructuring its international program, too, to eliminate three positions.

“We realized that we had some duplication of services and we are going to be creating a multicultural center. We are also moving one of those positions into our admissions office in our recruitment office,” Mottet said.

“The restructuring has allowed us to achieve some efficiencies but at the same time still maintaining a level of service that will allow us to service our international students.”

A contract with a visiting professor in the engineering and physics would not be renewed.

Overall enrollment also has seen a decline. Enrollment dropped from 4,535 students in 2014 to 3,936 students in 2018.

“We have not been adjusting ourselves on the employees side at the same level that student enrollment has been dropping,” Mottet said. “We are doing that at this point.”

Mottet said enrollment is dropping for several reasons, including a robust state economy, low unemployment and entry-level jobs paying a salary that entices young people to forgo college and enter the workforce.

“Another reason is that public opinion around higher education has been declining. People are questioning the value of a college degree. We are working hard to reposition the university and prepare students for professional life,” Mottet said. “The public perception is hurting universities.”

Mottet said the cost of college is being pushed onto family members because the state is covering less of the cost than it used to. He said people are having fewer children and later in life and because of that there are fewer high school students available to go to college.

“People also are moving out of rural areas and from cold areas to warm areas,” Mottet said.

Mottet said the cuts have been painful.

“We have been going through this process for some time and we are at a point where we needed to make the decision so that we can have a balanced budget for fiscal year 2020,” Mottet said.

amestas@chieftain.com

Twitter: @mestas3517