Loyack proposes solutions for Rider’s financial crisis
By Caroline Haviland
To combat the university’s $21.8 million deficit, Rider President John Loyack announced a possible course of action in an Oct. 6 universitywide email based on feedback from almost 100 university constituents.
In the email, Loyack revealed Rider’s recent $13 million Westminster Choir College property settlement will unexpectedly not help the university’s financial standing.
The email said, “Prior to my arrival I, like many of you, was hopeful that the funds from the Westminster settlement would help with Rider’s financial situation, but this is not the case. The funds anticipated from the Westminster legal settlement had been committed over the last several years as a basis for borrowing money that paid for prior-year cash operating losses. Rider is obligated to use the Westminster settlement proceeds to repay those loans and borrowings.”
College of Arts and Sciences Senior Associate Dean and WCC Associate Professor of Music Education Jason Vodicka said in an email to The Rider News, “While I have a lot of emotional attachment to the WCC campus, knowing the amount of the sale or how the proceeds from it will be used is not information that would be shared with someone in my position.”
The proposal comes after Loyack labeled Rider’s financial situation as “more severe than expected,” in a Sept. 19 universitywide email, due to unforeseen events that he did not identify.
The ideas presented in the email, sparked from a dozen small-group listening sessions Loyack and Provost Kelly Bidle held over the previous two weeks, include laying off additional personnel, reducing salaries, eliminating inefficient programs, improving workload efficiency, making adjustments to employee benefits and eliminating employee reimbursements.
In response to an inquiry from The Rider News regarding Loyack’s email, Director of Communications Rachel Stengel said the correspondence highlights the latest information available for the campus community, and more details will be shared at a later time.
Communications Professor David Dewberry called Loyack’s listening sessions “an ineffective strategy,” since the ideas only came from some people.
“If someone came to me and said, ‘Do you want to reduce salaries?’ I’d want a vote in that and I would say, ‘No.’ As I think most people would in that situation. … Just because somebody said something doesn’t mean we’re willing to do it,” Dewberry said.
Dewberry pointed out the idea of layoffs is not new to Rider, as former Chief Diversity Officer Heeyoung Kim and former Assistant Vice President of Career Development, Engaged Learning and Leadership Kim Barberich were laid off over the summer. The methods to address Rider’s financial situation, Dewberry said, “seems to be no different than in the past.”
As the AAUP’s contractual Oct. 31 faculty layoff deadline approaches, the faculty union’s leadership plans to meet about Loyack’s correspondence on Oct. 8 and deliver a formal response some time afterwards.
The universitywide feedback also helped Loyack foster a vision for a Rider beyond its current financial distress, the email explained.
These future ideas include improving the university’s academic model, creating partnerships with outside organizations, improving campus life, enhancing existing revenue streams, bettering operational efficiency and working on the university’s reputation.
With the president announcing changes to come, Dewberry said that while many are anxious for the future, the university has been “living under this umbrella for some time.”
