The cuts amount to $16 million in savings, according to a university press release, which leaves Portland State with $19 million left to cover.
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Portland State University President Ann Cudd announced Tuesday that the university will close two departments and lay off 34 full-time faculty members and two full-time academic professionals as part of its plan to address a projected $35 million budget shortfall over the next two years. Its faculty union, the PSU–American Association of University Professors, has negotiated with administrators in recent months to shrink the number of layoffs and said it will continue to push back against the cuts.
The two departments earmarked for closure in the earlier “provisional plan”—university studies, Portland State’s general education department, and conflict resolution—will be shuttered, Cudd said during a press conference Tuesday. Other faculty jobs will be eliminated from the Portland Center, which offers international students the opportunity to study abroad at Portland State, as well as the educator licensure; leadership, learning and counseling; history; philosophy; and world languages and literatures departments. In addition to the full-time reductions, three faculty positions will be made part-time. Of the 36 faculty and academic professionals who will be laid off, eight are tenured.
