Après nous le déluge

From Faculty Cuts Begin, With Warnings Of More To Come by Paul Caron. Caron is an interesting and valuable blogger, primarily focused on simply bringing to specialist or obscure material to the awareness of the general reader without much editorial add.

In instance:

Thirty-one faculty members were laid off at Missouri Western State University, while 20 others will receive terminal one-year contracts, Inside Higher Ed reported. St. Edward’s University, in Texas, eliminated an unknown number of employee positions, including some faculty members on and off the tenure track, the Austin American-Statesman reported. City University of New York colleges have begun announcing plans to remove hundreds of adjunct positions, according to the CUNY faculty and staff union; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stood in solidarity with the union, saying in a statement that “austerity is not the answer.” And rumors have swirled at Ohio University that instructor positions will be eliminated, speculation that was confirmed in a Friday-evening message to the campus from the president. ...

Faculty leaders on various campuses are scrutinizing those decisions. They say they appreciate the need to be frugal but don’t understand why contingent faculty members, who are often the lowest paid and do the bulk of the teaching, are on the chopping block. ...

The Chronicle has identified 162 institutions associated with a layoff, a furlough, or a contract nonrenewal resulting from Covid-19. At least 44,368 employees in academe are known to have been affected by those actions.

See the original for the links.

44,368 employees at 162 institutions. Under 280 per institution.

There are nearly 4,500 colleges and universities in the US. About 3.8-4.5m are employed in the tertiary education sector. Definitions get in the way of consistent employment figures but when you include administrators and part time adjunct faculty, I suspect the total number is close to 4.5m.

The point being that 44,368 employees at 162 institutions is the very smallest tip of the iceberg.