Plan calls for student, faculty sacrifices

This story was updated Nov. 13 at 12:58 p.m.

By Grace Bertrand

Student scholarships for athletes, student government leaders and student media are set to be cut by fall 2026, along with millions of dollars of wages and benefits from faculty, in efforts to pull Rider out of deep financial distress, according to a Nov. 4 version of the March to Sustainability Plan obtained on Nov. 11 by The Rider News. 

Rider President John Loyack said in a Nov. 11 interview with The Rider News that scholarships for student organizations will be reduced by fall 2026, including the Student Government Association and student media, among other proposed changes to alleviate Rider’s financial deficit. 

According to the Nov. 4 Plan, approximately 33 student leadership positions will be eliminated: 13 for SGA, 16 for 107.7 The Bronc, two for The Rider News and two for the Rider University Network. However, Loyack said on Nov. 11 that no student scholarships will be eliminated, but only reduced, stating “We are gonna reduce the scholarships related to student activities … It affects a handful of students.” 

While Loyack also said on Nov. 11 that athletic scholarships will not be affected, stating “We’re certainly not eliminating athletic scholarships,” the Nov. 4 version of the Plan states that $500,000 worth of projected savings will come from reducing two full-time scholarships in wrestling, one each in women’s basketball and lacrosse, reducing merit aid for women’s basketball and a 5.2% scholarship reduction across all other sports. 

Rider’s financial stress

Rider is set to owe $15.7 million between March and June of 2026, with a 12.5% interest rate, which Loyack attributes to the university’s bad credit. Rider’s debt currently sits at $130 million, he said. 

“We’ve borrowed all of the money we can borrow to the point where no bank would give us additional funding. We’ve taken all the money out of the endowment we can take that wasn’t restricted or used as collateral to borrow money in the past to fill the deficits,” Loyack said. “Talk about the cupboard being bare, there is like nowhere to go.” 

Rider administrators also plan to lay off 25% of full-time faculty represented by the union by Dec. 31, after the university was placed on probation because of its financial standing, according to an outline of the Plan announced by Loyack through a facultywide and staffwide Nov. 10 email. This would save $4.8 million annually, according to the full copy of the Plan obtained by The Rider News.

A majority of the layoffs were determined through a review over the summer of annual full-time faculty performance reports, Provost Kelly Bidle said in a Nov. 11 interview with The Rider News. The reports were analyzed using a rubric to evaluate performance and contributions across four major categories: merit, skills, leadership and academic area of discipline, according to the Nov. 4 Plan. 

This is a major departure from the faculty’s current contract, which states that adjuncts and then lecturers from disciplines must be laid off before any full-time faculty, in order of seniority.

Rider’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors President Maria Villalobos-Buehner said, “There are a whole lot of things that [the administration] are not taking into consideration or stories and lives of people that have put their everything at the university to deal with responsibilities from the past. There is no sense of accountability for that.” 

Bidle said the faculty cuts would not result in the cancellation of any programs or classes for spring 2026, but rather the responsibility will be shifted to adjunct and other full-time faculty to cover those courses. 

In addition to eliminating 35 to 40 full-time faculty positions, the Plan calls for faculty and staff to make several sacrifices, including a reduction of all employees’ base pay by 14% and an indefinite suspension of Rider’s retirement contribution, both beginning Dec. 1, along with a requirement that all remaining faculty teach more classes each semester. The salary reduction would save $6.4 million annually and suspension of retirement contributions another $1.7 million, according to the copy of the Nov. 4 Plan.

Requiring tenured or tenure-track faculty to teach four courses a semester instead of three, and requiring lecturers to teach five classes per semester instead of four, would save an additional $312,000 annually, according to the Plan.

Villalobos-Buehner said “This has been the narrative for the last 10 years … [The university] continues with the same way of saying this is what [faculty] have to do, this is what we want and this is how we want you to do it. Well no, we have a contract.” 

Loyack explained that while he understands how unfair the situation is to faculty, there is no other option, saying, “No new president wants to come in and eliminate a job or lower salaries or take away benefits. It’s a horrible thing, and it’s on an individual basis, even more horrible, but we don’t have any other choice.” 

In a facultywide email on Nov. 11, AAUP leaders said they were still awaiting critical financial information from the university, including a draft of the most recent audit, an update on the forensic analysis of the audit, and the most recent bank reconciliations of all Riders’ accounts.

Victoria McLendon, co-president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said that AFSCME was able to meet with Loyack and Bidle to discuss alternative options for its total of 38 members, which she said is down approximately 75% in the last seven years. 

McLendon said, “We have lost our employees and our workloads have shifted. No different than what’s expected of [the AAUP]. And fairness to them, it’s their turn for this hit.” 

Rider was placed on probation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education on Oct. 30. If Rider loses accreditation from Middle States, its students will no longer be eligible for federal financial aid, putting the institution in dire financial jeopardy.

King’s College, Loyack’s previous employer, was also placed on probation for not meeting two standards: finances and student learning outcomes. Loyack said it took him 18 months to get that probation lifted. 

In Loyack’s Nov. 10 email, he stated that conversations with Rider’s leaders of the AAUP and the American Federation of Teachers about the Plan are ongoing. 

Villalobos-Buehner said while the AAUP is appreciative of any collaboration with the university, it needs to be done with respect and transparency. She said, “We need collaboration with the facts and with the numbers that we asked for … The Board has approved yet another plan in which the faculty is carrying all the responsibility for things that happened that we were not involved in. ”   

Loyack’s hope is that faculty do not let the anger from the last decade affect how Rider moves forward. He said, “You have to be careful about not getting so caught up in the past and that we’re so angry about it, that we eliminate any potential for a future.” 

McLendon echoed this sentiment, saying that the AAUP needed to stop comparing Loyack with former President Gregory Dell’Omo. 

She said, “There’s two different means of leadership, two completely different directions. And what [former] President Dell’Omo and his administration has not been able to do is exactly what has needed to be done by President Loyack. And that is to address AAUP for their consideration, for their communication, to lessen their numbers. They are the only department that hasn’t had a hit.”

The AAUP has lost 83 full-time faculty members since 2015, now sitting with a total of 178 full-time faculty, Villalobos-Buehner said. 

Faculty speak up 

Starting in the 2026-27 academic year, according to Rider’s Plan, there will be an end to external faculty tuition remission benefits, saving $600,000 annually, and reduced paid faculty development benefits saving $374,000 each year. The university also plans to eliminate priority adjunct health benefits beginning January 1, 2026, and the elimination of several senior administrative positions, according to the March to Sustainability Plan. 

Director of the Baccalaureate Honors Program and English Associate Professor Laurel Harris said that her concern about the Plan lies with, “what the loss of faculty mentors and what the loss of the process knowledge that enables our programs to run smoothly would mean for our students.” 

Harris continued, “Faculty would be struggling to serve their students well while navigating many new demands on their time and attention and reeling from the loss of valued colleagues. I really can’t think through how this would all work in terms of relationships and logistics right now if it comes to pass.”

While the argument for the Plan is to help keep the university afloat, Loyack emphasized the importance of growing retention rates through the proposed actions. But Harris said that she thinks these “extreme measures” would make student enrollment and retention “enormously challenging.” 

Justin Burton, professor of music, stressed the impact the Plan will have on faculty members, stating that 25% of full-time, union-represented faculty being laid off was “an alarmingly high number.” 

He said, “It means we will all either be fired or be working at an institution where close, respected colleagues have been let go.” 

Burton also explained the layoffs go hand-in-hand with the increase in classes being taught by professors, which makes him worry about the effect it will have on the classroom, stating, “I know our faculty would do their best to continue providing a high-quality classroom experience for our students, but at some point, it becomes difficult to do that when everyone is stretched thin.” 

Dean of the Norm Brodsky College of Business Eugene Kutcher had his office open to faculty on Nov. 11 who wanted to seek solace after receiving the Nov. 10 email from Loyack. He said that several of his colleagues stopped in and it was nice to spend time with them, saying, “We are all in this together.” 

“I can say that the faculty care for this institution, that this is their professional home and that they’ve dedicated so much to it and they feel deeply about things that happen with the health of the university,” Kutcher said, who was added to Loyack’s Leadership Team on Sept. 12.  

Employees at odds 

The Board of Trustees approved the Plan on Oct. 30, following discussions on restructuring the university amid its multi-million dollar financial deficit. The Plan, which was voted unanimously by the Board, stated that the approved steps are in an effort for the university to address being placed on probation by Middle States because of Rider’s deep financial distress.

Rider recently hired a consultant for $29,000 to help rebuild the student service model. Loyack said that he received backlash after doing so, but maintained that if the consultant can help save one student, then Rider will have paid for it. 

While under probation by Middle States, Rider will continue to be accredited and will have the opportunity to be in compliance with Middle States’ financial standards by implementing the steps outlined in the March to Sustainability Plan and a submission of a monitoring report to Middle States by January 12, 2026, according to Loyack’s email. 

Rider is also required to submit a teach-out plan by Dec. 19 to Middle States as part of the probation. The accreditors are scheduled to meet in March to decide the status of Rider’s accreditation, according to the university. 

A facultywide email from the AAUP was sent out on Nov. 10, calling for faculty to remain calm until the administration releases specific numbers that would show the university’s financial upheaval. The email stated, “It is important that we keep our morale up and reassure our students that we will be here for them. In the meanwhile, we call upon the administration to cease jeopardizing the university through their irresponsible scare tactics and come to the table to negotiate openly with the AAUP in good faith.”

Bidle responded to the AAUP with her own Nov. 11 facultywide email, where she stated that the faculty union “has not repeatedly acknowledged the seriousness of Rider’s financial situation. Rather, they continue to question it, which is not helpful in finding a way forward.”

Bidle said in her email that the administration has not heard of any alternative solutions from the AAUP, writing, “Again, statements of commitment are commendable but so far they have been just that, statements.” 

Burton suggested that if the university’s financial situation was as dire as it says, members of the Board who oversaw past financial decisions should be turned over, saying, “‘Unforseen’ is not the same thing as ‘unforeseeable,’ and it is the job of the Board to see this sort of thing coming and act before we are at the cliff.”  

Loyack said he was also upset when he realized the reality of Rider’s financial situation upon beginning his appointment, but he is hopeful the Plan will be the first step in keeping Rider open. 

He said, “I can’t fix the past other than what we’re trying to do … It wasn’t the past that I thought I was walking into to create the next wave of the future. I could be angry about that or I could work to fix it. I choose to work to fix it. You’re all worth it.” 

Shara Begley, co-president of the AFSCME, said she and McLendon have met with Loyack four to five times to have, what she calls, transparent conversations. Begley emphasized that the sacrifices faculty are being asked to make will be worth it. 

“[AFSCME] is the backbone of this university,” she said. “Yes, the professors teach our students, educate our students, and see them succeed in life after they leave. However, without the AFSCME behind the scenes to do what needs to be done, they couldn’t do what they do.” 

Loyack stated in the Nov. 10 email that he will be meeting with SGA on Nov. 14 to discuss the March to Sustainability Plan. SGA President Moira Geiger, senior computer science major, declined to comment ahead of the meeting. A full copy of the Plan will also be released on Nov. 12, Loyack’s email stated. 

A campus forum in the Cavalla Room at the Bart Luedeke Center will be held on Nov. 13 at 11:30 a.m. for faculty and staff to discuss the Plan with Loyack and the Senior Leadership Team. 

Loyack wrote in the Nov. 10 email, “I am personally grateful to the many voices we have heard from across the community who have conveyed their ideas, emphatic understanding of the painful choices involved and the importance of Rider’s student experience.”

Villalobos-Buehner explained that Loyack and the Board need to take into consideration how the Plan will “affect the lives of so many colleagues.” 

She said, “Faculty are people. Faculty have lives, livelihoods, families on the line … Faculty are part of that student experience.”