Last semester, the administration at Ursinus College officially communicated that there would be cuts to faculty positions. The reaction from the Ursinus community was frustration and confusion. The faculty reductions are now in progress. This article will address questions about the situation.
The information below was compiled from official statements and Grizzly interviews with Ursinus administrators. Relevant articles about recent changes at Ursinus College are available on The Grizzly’s website (https://ursinusgrizzly.com/) and will be linked below.
How many faculty cuts are there?
Thirty faculty positions are being cut. There are 138 full-time faculty members at Ursinus. On February 3, Interim Provost Kelly Sorensen confirmed that 16 full-time, non-tenure-track faculty were “told their contracts would not be renewed after December 2026; two semesters from now.” Additionally, he confirmed that 14 additional faculty are choosing to leave the college by their own volition “through a voluntary separation package or to pursue other opportunities” in the upcoming semesters.
What is tenure?
Academic tenure grants professors an indefinite role at an institution. Professors with tenure cannot be fired without just cause or extenuating circumstances (e.g. the board formally declaring “financial” exigency if the institution’s financial status is sufficiently dire; elimination of academic programs). At Ursinus, it generally takes six years for a tenure-track professor to gain tenure, with reviews typically coming during a professor’s third and sixth years.
What is voluntary separation?
Tenured professors cannot be terminated outside the circumstances outlined above, but Ursinus College offered many of these professors a package to leave the institution. All tenured professors who took the package are teaching as normal during the spring 2026 semester. Then, they will leave on a paid “research sabbatical” for one full academic year starting the fall 2026 semester and ending at the conclusion of the spring 2027 semester. At that point, the tenured professors’ association with Ursinus will officially end. During the paid “research sabbatical,” the professors will not teach Ursinus classes.
What about non-tenured professors?
Following the voluntary separation agreement offer, cuts to non-tenured professor positions were announced. If a non-tenured professor’s contract was not renewed, that professor will leave Ursinus College by the end of the fall 2026 semester. Non-tenured professors will continue to teach until their separation dates.
Non-tenured professors include both those on the tenure-track (professors who are eligible to gain promotion to tenure based on the aforementioned criteria) and those not on the tenure-track.
What was the process for deciding and executing the cuts?
In a statement provided to The Grizzly, Interim Provost Sorensen wrote: “To determine this number [of faculty reductions], Ursinus worked with an external partner to conduct an analysis of revenue, cost, and margin for teaching, as well as a comparison of other similarly sized, four-year, private liberal arts institutions. Then, an eight-member faculty-led task force used this data to determine where Ursinus is best situated in terms of faculty size with a student body of 1,300, and in alignment with the college’s mission and delivery of APEX.”
As publicly revealed in a town hall held October 24th, part of this data analysis was informed by the Gray Decision Intelligence, or GrayDI, platform. Per the company’s website, GrayDI’s academic Program Evaluation System (PES) helps analyze an institution’s academic programs’ prospective market success and financial efficiency.
According to the Provost’s Office, more than half the tenured professors at Ursinus received voluntary separation offers on Dec. 2. Because the number of target faculty reductions was set at 30, the number of non-tenured faculty cuts was dependent on how many tenured faculty took the voluntary separation package. Tenured professors who received voluntary separation offers notified the provost of their intention to take the package by December 10th. Non-tenured professors were notified of possible changes to their employment status by December 15th.
Will there be an official announcement on which professors will be leaving?
No, there will not be an official announcement from Ursinus College on the status of individual professors. This was confirmed by the Provost’s Office.
Why are the cuts happening?
According to the Provost’s Office, Ursinus College is looking to lower its operating costs by $10 million over the next three years to ensure the long-term sustainability of the college. The student-to-faculty ratio is another reason for the cuts. Per an email sent out on December 3rd by Interim President Gundolf Graml, the college wants to “maintain a student-to-faculty ratio that’s in line with other top liberal arts colleges.” Currently, Ursinus hovers around a 1:10 faculty-to-student ratio. These cuts aim to raise the ratio to 1:12 or 1:13.
Will students be able to complete their majors?
The Ursinus administration has said that all students will be able to complete their majors at Ursinus and the intention of the cuts is “not to eliminate programs if at all possible.”
In a statement provided to The Grizzly, Interim Provost Sorensen wrote, “Few current majors will be affected since the faculty reductions were spread across many departments. For those programs that may be impacted, the college will ensure that students with declared majors will be able to finish out in those majors. At the same time, Ursinus is currently building out its APEX curriculum and in the months ahead, will actually be able to offer current and prospective students a higher net number of majors from which to choose.”
What is Ursinus’s current financial status? Should we be concerned?
There is no simple answer to this. In a Grizzly interview conducted October 25th, Joseph DeSimone ’86, the current Chair of the Ursinus Board of Trustees, expressed confidence in the college’s finances, stating, “We’re in a good financial situation right now. We’ve got to get our numbers up. We do multi-year programming. We understand where we’re at. We got a reasonable endowment — it’s not Harvard’s or Stanford’s endowment, but we’ve got a good plan.”
Ursinus College’s finances depend heavily on its enrollment. The college is hoping that the new Applied Professional Experiential Learning Program (APEX) will be a draw for students.
How much money did these moves save for the college?
According to Interim Provost Sorensen: “Over $3 million dollars in annual salaries and benefits will be saved by reducing the number of faculty. The faculty reduction is part of a broader effort to align our size and structure with an anticipated enrollment of 1,300–1,400 students.”
Are the remaining faculty benefits affected in any way?
According to Interim Provost Sorensen, the benefits of remaining faculty have not been affected in any way.
Where can I learn more?
The Grizzly staff have published articles this semester about the state of Ursinus, including interviews with administrators. They are linked below:
President Hannigan Talks Ursinus Financials, Student Athletes, Future, and More (by Sidney Belleroche)
President Hannigan Talks Ursinus Financials, Student Athletes, Future, and More – The Grizzly
Hannigan Removed From Role as President of Ursinus College – The Grizzly (by The Grizzly Editorial Team)
Hannigan Removed From Role as President of Ursinus College – The Grizzly
Trustee Chair Joseph DeSimone `86 Speaks on Institution-Wide Concerns – The Grizzly (by Nathaniel Nerone and Sidney Belleroche)
Trustee Chair Joseph DeSimone `86 Speaks on Institution-Wide Concerns – The Grizzly
Are Ursinus Bears Going Extinct? An Enrollment Analysis – The Grizzly (by Sidney Belleroche)
Are Ursinus Bears Going Extinct? An Enrollment Analysis – The Grizzly