Wright State may lay off up to 120 people to save $8 million

Wright State University may lay off up to 120 people in order to regain its financial footing, a board of trustees finance committee report shows.

The university is considering laying off between 80 and 120 people to save between $6 million and $8 million, according to a board of trustees finance committee report. Layoffs have long been expected but officials have not said how many people could lose their jobs before now.

Interim president Curtis McCray said the university is still in the process of figuring out exactly which positions will be cut but that they could be made public during a May 19 meeting.

Wright State employs around 3,700 faculty and staff at the university.

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“We’ll probably get a final list together that first week in May,” McCray said. “Our great hope is to be able to identify and notify these people before it’s made public.”

Wright State has to trim $25 million from its upcoming budget while also boosting the school’s reserve fund by $5 million.

The financial crisis the school is facing is the result of years of overspending, school officials have said. The university is projected to have overspent by more than $120 million over the past six years.

Along with layoffs, the school may also leave between 30 and 50 currently vacant positions empty, according to the report. The vacant positions would save the school another $3 million to $5 million.

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The report details a number of other ways the school will look to save millions of dollars. Wright State’s Lake Campus and Boonshoft School of Medicine, which operate under separate budgets, are being asked to give a combined $4 million back to the university.

WSU could cut between $7 million and $10 million from the university’s operations, according to the report. The operations that could be affected were not specified.

The board of trustees are scheduled to meet in executive session at 4 p.m. Thursday in the student union’s Wright Brothers Room and then in a public session at 8:30 a.m. Friday in the Berry Room of the Nutter Center. The finance committee will meet immediately after the public session concludes, according to an agenda.

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