The University of Akron announced a sweeping $40 million budget cut — a move that includes the elimination of 215 non-faculty positions and the dissolution of the university’s baseball program.

In a prepared statement, University of Akron president Scott Scarborough said the university is facing a $60 million “financial problem,” and the administration has pieced together a three-year plan to solve that looming shortfall. In addition to the $40 million in cuts, the university expects it will raise $10 million through increased graduate tuition and undergraduate fees. The remaining $10 million will made up with “profitable enrollment growth” through the third year of the plan. “The University of Akron’s future is bright, but first we need to fix its finances,” Scarborough said in his statement. Scarborough said the “most painful but necessary reduction is the abolishment of filled positions.” In the release, the university said the affected employees would be notified later this month after it ensures it has complied with government regulations and contractual agreements. Of those 215 positions being eliminated, about 180 are currently filled. “We are working hard to ensure that our colleagues whose positions will be eliminated are shown the respect and courtesy they deserve,” Scarborough said in the statement. “We owe them our thanks and appreciation for their years of service to the university.” As for the baseball program, Lawrence Burns, the university’s vice president for advancement, said the elimination is immediate. He said the student-athletes with scholarships can retain those scholarships but for those who wish to transfer schools, “they may do so immediately without penalty.” Other cost savings will be found in the elimination of non-academic programming in EJ Thomas Hall except for rentals; the outsourcing of dining services; and centralizing course scheduling. The university said it also plans to increase the cost-sharing of retiree dependent coverage, change its retire/rehire policy and renegotiate its health care plans. The university said it expects to reduce “central costs” by limiting legal fees and university memberships. “We know that the next few weeks will be tough,” Scarborough said in a message to campus. “After that, we will refocus our efforts on the mission ahead — to become a great public university for all of Northeast Ohio and the world.” While the cuts may come as a shock — and painful for many — they shouldn’t be a surprise. One of the reasons Scarborough, an accountant by training, was brought on board was because of his reputation for turning around financially challenged enterprises like the University of Akron. Scarborough, for one, engineered the turnaround at the University of Texas at Tyler, where he served as vice president for business affairs, by directing efforts that generated more than $4 million in savings over four years. He also took the university's performing arts center from a $130,000 loss in 1999 to an estimated net income of $100,000 in 2001. At DePaul University, where he served as executive vice president for finance and administration, he improved the bottom line in the 2003-2004 operating budget by $11 million in six months. Shortly after his arrival at the University of Akron, Moody’s Investors Service made note in a report of “the fresh perspective of the new president with a proven record of good fiscal management and the strategic focus on stabilizing enrollment and improving future financial performance.” The financial picture for all of higher education is challenging, but particularly for public colleges and universities. State support hasn’t kept up with rising expenses and affordability concerns have prospective students reconsidering higher education altogether. Those issues are compounded at the University of Akron because of its hefty debt load brought on by a dramatic campus overhaul carried out under former president Luis Proenza. In today’s announcement, the university said its current budget “includes funds to maintain and enhance academic quality consistent with its goal of becoming a great polytechnic university like Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech.” In May, Scarborough announced a rebranding of the University of Akron as “Ohio’s polytechnic university.” The move hasn’t been entirely welcome, especially on social media where students and others have voiced their concerns. Scarborough has said the word “polytechnic” describes the university’s strengths with career-focused and technology-infused learning — both in terms of the sciences and the arts.