PROVIDENCE – Johnson & Wales University will lay off 91 total employees between its local and North Carolina campuses to address “serious challenges,” including the university operating at a significant budget deficit, according to Chancellor Mim L. Runey in
a May 5 community letter.
Runey wrote that the impacted employees – both staff and faculty – will be notified in the next few days that their jobs will be eliminated and be offered severance packages. The layoffs, Runey wrote, are part of JWU’s restructuring and reorganizing of key departments and programs, as well as aligning the university’s operational size “with the reality of our current student population and budget.”
“We understand this will be difficult news for all of the JWU community,” Runey wrote. “The decision to implement layoffs has been carefully evaluated and deeply deliberated by university leadership, with full support from the board of trustees. We simply cannot afford to be the size that we once were, and we believe this reduction will allow us to close a financial deficit and to move forward with a balanced budget.”
JWU’s local campus employs 1,205 people, including 435 faculty, according to Providence Business News research. Fifty-two faculty and 39 staff will be let go by the university between Providence and Charlotte, N.C. Sixty-nine of the 91 impacted employees are assigned to the Providence campus, JWU spokesperson Rachel Nunes LaFleur told PBN in an email Wednesday.
Runey wrote that JWU currently has a $34 million operating structural deficit, despite past measures taken by the university to address the budget short fall. In the past, JWU consolidated programs, closed two campuses that were running deficits “for several years” and eliminated open positions through natural attrition, Runey wrote. But, she wrote those measures were meant to be “temporary” while the university allowed for investments in programs to create “their expected returns.”
“Without changes to the core way the university operates, the deficit could continue to grow, creating an operational imbalance that would be very difficult to reverse,” Runey wrote. “Changes made now will mitigate the potential for a larger more severe impact in the future.”
Declining enrollment is also factoring into JWU’s decision to cut staff. Runey wrote JWU’s overall enrollment has decreased by 54% since the 2012 fiscal year, with “every academic area” being affected, flagship programs included.
JWU has recently announced two new programs, one being
a three-year bachelor’s degree initiative and the “
JWU Pledge,” where either most or all tuition will be free for qualifying students. University officials told PBN their hope is those programs can help boost JWU’s enrollment numbers.
Per PBN research, JWU’s local undergraduate enrollment has dropped by close to half over the last six academic years from 7,267 full-time undergraduate students in 2017-18 to just 3,761 in the 2024-25 academic year.
“While there is some indication that we are on the right track with enrollment, we do not believe we will return to levels of enrollment that supported a much larger organization and operating budget,” Runey wrote. “Therefore, the changes we are implementing now will serve as a rightsizing of operations that will put the university on a stronger path.”
Additionally, Runey wrote that JWU will delay its compensation increases to employees until later in the year “when we can evaluate what is possible.” Despite JWU having reduced debt and a “healthier endowment,” its one-time cash reserves are “now nearly depleted,” Runey wrote.
Moving forward, JWU, Runey wrote, will plan with “the conservatism” that the current times demand. She wrote the new academic programs JWU recently launched, such as health and wellness and new graduate offerings, have shown “promising early results.” However, those initiatives, Runey wrote, have not had time to yield returns that would significantly improve the operational budget.
“We are at the beginning of a new journey, forged out of a moment of crisis,” Runey wrote. “Through our collective leadership we will demonstrate the resilience that has defined our history and will emerge a stronger university deeply rooted in our core mission and values. We are seeing reasons for optimism in our current strategic direction, but the stark reality is that Johnson & Wales University must endure a rapid evolution into a different way of working.”
(UPDATED 4th paragraph to include layoff data from Johnson & Wales University spokesperson Rachel Nunes LaFleur.)
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on X at @James_Bessette.
