PORTLAND, Ore. — Seventeen Portland State University (PSU) faculty received layoff notices on Friday.
The university confirmed the six-months' notices, saying those who received them are non-tenure-track faculty. Their positions will conclude at the end of this academic year, in mid-June, according to President Ann Cudd and Provost Shelly Chabon.
The university said in an email to KGW that PSU sent notices to 94 people on Oct. 15, and the layoffs sent out Friday are the first round. It's an effort to cut costs, following a nationwide trend.
PSU said in an email to staff that the university has identified programs to be closed down or otherwise have zero students already. It also noted an incentive program for eligible faculty to retire by Dec. 18. As of Friday, 23 faculty accepted the offer and will retire at during the current academic year.
"We’ll share more information in the coming months as those plans advance through our shared governance processes in the Faculty Senate," PSU said, in part.
PSU noted 21,040 total enrollment in 2023, with 16,423 of those undergraduates and 4,617 graduate students. Its numbers have yet to recover from before the COVID-19 pandemic, with PSU marking 26,020 students in fall 2019. Though the total number of students enrolled at Oregon public universities rose in 2024, PSU has been an outlier.
