Where are Lesley University’s finances a year after the layoffs?

Sometimes classes are consumed by discussions about financial problems, said Blair Webber, a sophomore.

“I would rather not spend my class time bothering my teachers about the state of the school,” he said. “It is clear to me that more sustainable for the school actually means more profitable. I am dismayed that the person they are taking advantage of is me, and getting little in return.”

Administrators said their focus is on the institution’s long-term survival amid a challenging time in higher education. Universities across the country are grappling with declining enrollment and rising costs, and are engaged in an ongoing competition to lure students away from the competition. In Massachusetts, more than twenty colleges have this closed or merged at larger institutions in the past decade, and even at Lesley’s powerful neighbor, Harvard University, reported a smaller operating surplus this fall after a turbulent academic year.

At Lesley, one $100 million restructuring plan “is working as intended,” President Janet Steinmayer said, as school budgets were cut consolidating academic programs, reducing workforces and selling off unused buildings.

The money is now flowing into expanding student spaces and Lesley’s retail presence on Massachusetts Avenue. (It owns the former Sears building in which it new second outpost of Porter Square Books And relocated the famous Udon outpost Yume Ga Arakaru They hope these improvements – combined with a new program to connect students with potential employers the day they walk onto campus – can boost enrollment. This year, the number of new students increased by about 1,000, making up for some of the decline over the past decade.

“Our plan, which is designed to stabilize our finances but also position us appropriately, is working,” Steinmayer said. “But it works in a way that means it will take some time for everything to come to fruition.”

It will be a tough hill to climb: Lesley’s overall revenues fell 40 percent between 2015 and 2022, according to publicly available data, sapping the school’s reserves and forcing the school to rely more on tuition to stay afloat to hold water. Each year since 2017, Lesley has spent a larger share of its endowment on operating expenses than the average institution, and last year it allocated more than 8 percent of its approximately $180 million fund to cover university expenses.

“It’s unsustainable,” said Gary Stocker, founder of College Viability, which tracks college finances. “Because at some point they will have used so much that they won’t have enough to work with.”

Many teachers also have concerns. In a February letter, professors alleged the university had “grossly distorted” enrollment and turnover data to justify layoffs, and the majority of professors repeatedly voted “no confidence.” against Steinmayerthe board of trustees and the provost.

Meanwhile, remaining professors are taking on the workload of their laid-off colleagues, and another dozen faculty members were moved from teaching classes to full-time administrative duties for various academic departments. Lesley is now leaning on more part-time adjunct professors to teach, two faculty members said, and several duties long held by education faculty — department chairs, committee roles and curriculum design duties — that provided additional pay have been pushed aside .

In an interview, Steinmayer said the change reflects the school’s efforts to shift non-academic responsibilities from professors and save money by combining administrative responsibilities.

Then there are the ongoing union negotiations, which are getting worse, according to Jason Butler, a professor of expressive therapies who resigned as department chair in December.

The university’s latest contract proposal to the faculty union includes a 1 percent annual cost-of-living increase, well below the inflation rate in recent years. In the month since the contract expired, negotiations have made little progress, the union said. And the incomes of the highest-paid university employees have increased, research shows tax returns. For example, Steinmayer’s pay increased from $257,642 in 2020 to $589,949 last year.

“I don’t think anyone else within the institution would say there wasn’t a need to make adjustments,” Butler said. “But the way in which those adjustments were made was difficult and problematic.”

The board prefers to concentrate on the future. Lesley recently debuted renovations to Reed and Burnham halls and announced a new $5 million scholarship fund for Maine students — signs that things may be changing for the better.

“We can all name the things we are sad about that have changed the way we work personally,” said Stephanie Spadorcia, vice provost for education and former faculty member at Lesley. “But my colleagues are generally looking for the positive points that we can anchor.”

Still, some students, already frustrated and ready to protest, may not stick around if Lesley scales back further, said Fiona Doyle, a 25-year-old drama therapy student, who said their teaching experience has been “diminished” by fewer resources and threats for the accreditation of the department.

“I have no active plans to transfer,” Doyle said. “But it feels like the writing is on the wall.”

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Diti Kohli can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @ditikohli_.