NORTON – Wheaton College laid off 17 employees and eliminated 12 other vacant positions this week after the recession took a bite out of the school’s finances, President Ronald Crutcher said Wednesday.
“This has been a difficult process, particularly in a collaborative community such as ours,” Crutcher wrote in an e-mail announcement. “The college has offered severance packages and support services to the employees who were affected, in appreciation for their service to Wheaton.” The layoffs did not include any faculty members.
Beyond Cash Donations: How New Forms of Giving Are Transforming Not-for-Profit Accounting
Evolving Funding Landscape for Not-for-Profits Not-for-profit organizations are being asked to do more with less,…
Learn More
Wheaton had 139 full-time and 30 part-time faculty members during the school year that ended this month, 82 of whom have tenure, according to college documents. The college had about 407 non-faculty employees this year, up from 384 in 2005-06.
The value of Wheaton’s endowment dropped 23 percent to $139.8 million in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2009, but rebounded to $152.6 million as of March 31, according to the college. The endowment contributes about 12 percent of Wheaton’s annual budget.
Earlier this month, Wheaton borrowed $31.4 million by issuing tax-exempt revenue bonds through the Mass. Health and Educational Facilities Authority. The money will be used to pay for construction projects, including the college’s new $42 million science center, according to a prospectus filed April 22.
Crutcher said Wednesday the science center would be named the Mars Center for Science and Technology in recognition of financial support provided by Adrienne Bevis Mars and her husband, John. The new, 77,800-square-foot building is slated to open in the fall of 2011.
Adrienne Mars is a Wheaton life trustee who graduated from the college in 1958, while John Mars is the former CEO of Mars Inc., maker of M&Ms and other brands of candy. They have been among Wheaton’s largest donors in recent years, and the college’s Mars Arts and Humanities building, renovated in 2001, is also named for them. They live in Wyoming.
Wheaton is also planning to increase its enrollment by 130 students, to about 1,700 undergraduates, over the next four years. Crutcher said the college will start a two-year housing expansion this summer that will include the conversion of three college-owned houses into residential housing for 30 students.
Administrators are also studying whether to add more dormitories, he said. Wheaton is planning to construct a three-story, 33,900-square-foot residence hall that will house about 100 students, according to the bond prospectus.
Wheaton was in the news this week after Ann Curry, the host of NBC’s “Today” show, mistakenly referred to alumni from the other Wheaton College, in Illinois, during her commencement speech in Norton last weekend. Curry apologized to Crutcher and the campus in an e-mail on Monday.
Additional information is available at wheatoncollege.edu.
