Portland State University to Proceed With 36 Layoffs

Portland State University on Tuesday announced 36 layoffs and the elimination of two departments.

The number of layoffs, part of the university’s finalized retrenchment plan, is lower than when PSU president Ann Cudd last shared updates about the pending cuts in May. (Back then, she estimated 52 layoffs.) The two departments slated for elimination remain the same: University Studies and Conflict Resolution.

The former, which has offered a liberal arts spin on general education, is being replaced by a different program. The latter is a degree program that teaches deescalation and peace-building strategies. Current students will be allowed to complete their coursework.

Still, layoffs from the department closures and others in such departments as educator licensure, history, and world languages and literature have led the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors to deem the layoffs the “worst” in the university’s history. Of the 36 faculty ultimately terminated, eight are tenured and 26 are on a nontenure track, says PSU spokeswoman Katy Swordfisk. The final two affected are academic professionals. Those reductions will save $15.9 million.

Like several other universities across Oregon, PSU has struggled with declining enrollment and rising costs. The reductions to faculty and academic professionals are just part of a universitywide effort to reduce spending by $35 million over the next two fiscal years, in hopes of closing the budget deficit by fiscal year 2028. Cudd told reporters the university continues to make personnel reductions “in a variety of other ways.”

PSU-AAUP, the faculty union, has long said the university should invest in growth instead of scrambling to make cuts. As Oregon Public Broadcasting has reported, PSU spends about 17% of what other comparable universities do on marketing and communications, efforts union leaders say could boost recruitment and revenue.

Cudd acknowledged that the university had begun an effort to improve marketing, noting new efforts would be part of an enrollment recovery plan. “We agree that we need to make a bigger investment in marketing, and we will,” she says. “We plan to be doing that in the coming year; we’re going to carefully track that and make sure that it’s tied to achievable metrics that will deliver enrollment gains.”

But there appeared to be dissonance between the faculty union and the president on state revenue from the upcoming biennium, with the union much more optimistic than Cudd. PSU-AAUP president Bill Knight said the union had engaged with Gov. Tina Kotek and legislators about improving funding for higher education in the state, and that she was ready to do the work. Cudd said the university’s financial forecasting already reflects “pragmatic” estimates of what state funding will look like.

Knight added that “the conversation is obviously not over” around layoffs, and that the union had already filed a number of labor grievances.

“We know that legislative leaders are ready to work on this. We’ve had the conversations that generate our confidence in that,” Knight said. “President Cudd says the exact opposite thing. She says there are no legislative solutions. She said that in a board meeting. She’s told us again and again there are no solutions in Salem. We fundamentally disagree.”

Affected faculty will be employed through June 15, 2027. Academic professionals with layoff notices will be employed through Dec. 15.