Inside Higher Ed
by Elizabeth Redden
December 1, 2020
New alliance of workers and students across Jesuit institutions joins together to protest cuts that they argue undermine their colleges' unique educational missions.
An alliance of faculty, staff and graduate student unions; American Association of University Professor chapters; and student organizations has come together to support a new petition opposing “the rash of austerity-driven layoffs, firings and program eliminations occurring and under consideration by Jesuit institutions across the United States.”
The move comes at a time when Jesuit liberal arts institutions, like their secular counterparts, are under increasing financial duress due to declining enrollment and funding and compounded by the economic fallout of the pandemic. Faculty and staff at the Catholic institutions have grown increasingly worried as their institutions have responded with belt-tightening measures once considered unthinkable.