Due to long-term financial need, Ursinus College has announced a plan to eliminate contingent faculty members. Additionally, they have sent voluntary separation agreements to tenured faculty, in the hopes of decreasing ultimate staffing by a quarter. This is not the first step that the college has taken, but it is a drastic move in an effort to mitigate future potential financial necessity. While the financial issues faced by the college are complex and severe, I believe that the faculty are the core of the college's liberal arts philosophy. Furthermore, I fear it jeopardizes its future and contravenes established principles of academic freedom and labor and employment.

First, as any graduate of Ursinus knows, the faculty are the most important aspect of the school. The college prides itself on its small class sizes, individualized attention, and national recognition for being one of the Top 100 Liberal Arts Colleges (per U.S. News & World Report) and one of only 46 Colleges that Change Lives.

However, the school's mission to "enable students to be independent, responsible, and thoughtful individuals through a program of liberal education" is only as effective as the education it provides. I firmly believe in the excellence of the instruction at Ursinus. The school is placing the very core of its excellence at risk. 

Secondly, the impacts of this decision jeopardize the future of the college. Many others and myself committed to an Ursinus education because of the aforementioned specialized instruction and unique focus on our personal academic development. While I was deciding where to attend college, I received a call from the head of the English department, Dr. Rebecca Jaroff. She urged me to attend, not because she was instructed to call prospective students but because she believed in my academic potential at Ursinus. To me, this is illustrative of the unique qualities of an Ursinus education, where a vested interest in academic outcomes is a core part of the curriculum.

By reducing faculty, there is a great likelihood that this care will be impossible due to both the sheer workload and decreased morale among faculty. Firstly, professors will not be able to provide individualized attention with such a severe decrease in staffing. Secondly, Ursinus's proposed actions demonstrate a clear disregard for the well-being of their faculty– existing faculty will lack the support to provide tailored support, and prospective professors are unlikely to join the staff of a school with a demonstrated disregard for their workforce.

Finally, for a small, private liberal arts college to be successful, the core principles of academic freedom and equitable labor and employment must remain intact. By threatening to oust both tenured and contingent faculty, Ursinus is demonstrating a disregard for tenets of a liberal arts education. This is particularly concerning amidst the rise of national sentiments against higher education, including tenure ban bills. Furthermore, these agreements diminish the valuable contributions to academia that their faculty make and threaten the bedrock of equitable labor practices in higher education that have been specifically crafted to protect academic freedom. 

I love Ursinus College, and am incredibly grateful for the education I received. I believe it equipped me to become successful and to achieve the mission statement Ursinus has adopted. However, this was only due to the excellent instruction I was fortunate to receive from my professors, particularly in the English and History departments. I felt they cared about my development both personally and professionally, a result of both the small size of the school and the significant value placed on academic excellence, which has now become a value of mine.

If nothing else, I hope for more transparency and communication from the school to students, alums, and faculty. I believe there is another solution that protects the school and the values it stands for.  I urge you to sign this petition to help find it.