Portland State University is facing a campus showdown as union members rally against a proposal that could eliminate 52 positions, marking what KPTV reported would be the largest round of layoffs in the university’s history. The Portland State layoffs are tied to a $35 million budget deficit, with impacted faculty already receiving 12-month layoff notices.
On Tuesday, union members rallied outside PSU before moving into a Board of Trustees meeting where a budget proposal with major cuts could be approved. The plan would save an estimated $16 million, according to PSU President Ann Cudd, while eliminating two programs and reducing seven departments.
The cuts target more than jobs. According to OPB, PSU’s provisional plan would eliminate Conflict Resolution and University Studies, the school’s centralized general education program, while reducing areas including Portland Center, Educator Licensure, Leadership, Learning and Counseling, History, Philosophy, World Languages and Literatures, and the School of Earth, Environment and Society.
The pushback has been sharp. Portland City Councilor Mitch Green told KPTV, “Just like I tried to do in the Portland City Council budget was, I think we should chop from the top.” He added, “We should look at the administrative bloat, the expansion of non-education-related services and expenditures. Look to see the trim there first. Focus on your core delivery, which is professors, which is programs for students, classes that they can actually enroll in.”
Bill Knight, president of PSU-AAUP and an associate professor of English, put the stakes in human terms. “These are our colleagues. These are people. This is the campus community,” Knight said. “And the trauma that we can potentially do by pushing these cuts through will be immense to this campus community. It’s going to harm our reputation. It’s going to harm the capacity of our growth.”
PSU leaders say the school has to resize after years of enrollment pressure. Inside Higher Ed reported that enrollment has fallen more than 20 percent since the start of the pandemic, and Cudd said, “Over 14 years, we’ve shrunk by a third.”
Still, the tension is not new. In January, PSU said it would reinstate 10 non-tenure-track faculty members after an arbitrator’s order, while Cudd wrote that the university remained tasked with closing a $35 million deficit over two years.
Now, with the public comment period closed and trustees weighing the proposal, PSU is choosing between cuts it calls necessary and a campus community warning that the damage could last far beyond the budget cycle.
