TROY — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has begun notifying 280 employees they will be furloughed effective May 1 through July 31, according to an internal email shared with the Times Union.

Employees will be eligible for unemployment and will be able to keep their benefits, but the benefits will be deducted from future checks once they return to work.

Curtis Powell, vice president of human resources at RPI, wrote in an email to students and staff that the decision was a financial one, not a reflection of furloughed employees' skill or job performance.

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"Many organizations in the United States, and throughout the world, continue to struggle with financial challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Rensselaer is no exception," Powell said. "As a result, the Institute has made the difficult decision to furlough a portion of our workforce whose duties and responsibilities cannot be performed remotely, or where the normal workload has diminished significantly due to the impact of COVID-19."

While the campus has transitioned to a distance learning model, 237 students, primarily from other countries, remain on the campus.

The Troy college is among several in the region facing millions of dollars in revenue loss associated with room-and-board credits issued to students who went home for the semester due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The school, which serves nearly 8,000 students, stands to gain $4.8 million in relief aid from the federal CARES Act.

Other private colleges in the Capital Region are facing similar budget uncertainty as they issue millions of dollars in room-and-board credits and refunds to college students. The first wave of federal stimulus funds is only expected to cover a fraction of the losses.

The College of Saint Rose, in Albany, last week announced furloughs and temporary pay cuts to address a budget deficit widened by the coronavirus epidemic. Federal CARES Act relief funds are only expected to cover half of $3.1 million in losses associated with room-and-board reimbursements.

Schenectady's Union College has furloughed 274 employees to address a $7 million immediate financial shortfall caused by the cancellation of on-campus instruction during the health crisis.