BEREA, Ohio — Baldwin Wallace University will have fewer faculty and staff for the 2025-26 school year.
Just months after the university announced that over 20 positions were cut, a spokesperson for the private university in Berea confirmed to 3News that 35 more people took a voluntary early retirement option. At least 17 of are considered faculty but didn’t the university spokesperson didn’t go into detail about which departments.
The cuts are a part of the efforts of what the university is calling a “transformation working group,” where university leaders are looking at how to restructure over the next decade to respond to shifts in the higher education landscape.
Back in February, 3News reported that the university is cutting back to address a deficit.
A university official says while the school is seeing healthy signs of enrollment — even alluding to the numbers being better than expected this school year — universities nationwide are experiencing “a demographic cliff” and seeing fewer students enrolling.
Baldwin Wallace isn’t the only school in Northeast Ohio dealing with money issues. Cleveland State University laid off 14 employees to close an approximate $40 million budget gap. A parent tells 3News that the cuts at CSU have had an impact on her student.
“When my daughter, who has been so excited to pursue this career in teaching, is now asking, ‘Am I making the right choice? Was this a good choice? Is budget going to be an issue that sabotages the field?’” Sandee Tiller says, when asked about what concerns about budget cuts.
Some Baldwin Wallace faculty who took the early retirement are leaving as early as December. The others are leaving at the end of the academic 2024-25 school year.