Brown U. to lay off 60 employees in June

THE 60 BROWN EMPLOYEES who will lose their jobs at the end of June will be informed over the next few weeks, the university said Monday. /
THE 60 BROWN EMPLOYEES who will lose their jobs at the end of June will be informed over the next few weeks, the university said Monday. /

PROVIDENCE – Brown University said Monday it will lay off about 60 employees on June 30 in order to help close a $30 million budget shortfall for the 2010-11 academic year.

Brown’s roughly 3,000 non-faculty staff members were informed of the job cuts in an e-mail sent Monday. The individuals who will lose their jobs will be told over the next few weeks.

“We are taking a number of steps to ensure that those affected by these changes will be supported as they seek to transition to alternative employment,” Beppie Huidekoper, Brown’s executive vice president for finance and administration, said in a statement.

Those who get laid off at the end of June will receive severance packages equal to four weeks of compensation for each year they worked at Brown; health insurance coverage for the duration of severance pay, and COBRA coverage thereafter; and assistance in finding a new job at Brown or elsewhere.

- Advertisement -

“Our goal is to complete this process as soon as possible but with as much care as needed,” Huidekoper added.

Brown is the eighth-largest employer in Rhode Island, according to Providence Business News data.

This is the second round of layoffs at Brown since the recession began. The university laid off 31 employees last spring and left 36 jobs vacant to deal with a budget shortfall for the current year. In addition, 139 employees took an early retirement offer late last year.

The positions that will be targeted for elimination this time were identified as part of a review of the university’s operations undertaken last year by an ad hoc committee of Brown staff and students.

The committee’s recommendations for $12 million in budget cuts and $2 million in additional revenue were included in the $787 million budget the school’s governing body approved last month.

“These are enormously challenging times for our entire community,” Brown Provost David Kertzer said in a statement Monday. “The economic downturn has forced the university to review and rethink the way we operate in order to reduce budget deficits while maintaining academic excellence in teaching and research.”

The value of Brown’s endowment dropped 27 percent to $2.02 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

Additional information is available at brown.edu.

No posts to display