Columbia laid off five instructional specialists in the School of Visual Arts this week.
The specialists, all members of the staff union, worked in facilities in the school, according to a person familiar with the layoffs who spoke on background because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
The college did not release the names of the staff members or the spaces where they worked. The Chronicle is not disclosing the names of laid off individuals unless they provide consent or talk publicly about their dismissal.
Instructional specialists help students with specialized equipment necessary to complete course work and often assist faculty during classes, including with safety demonstrations and equipment use. They also operate the facilities when classes aren’t in session.
The School of Visual Arts facilities include the printmaking facility, letterpress studio, papermaking studio, bookbinding studio, Digital Ink Jet Printer Lab, photography lighting studio and darkrooms.
The college, as of now, does not have plans to replace the five specialists, but Michelle Aiello, communications manager for the School of Visual Arts, said the facilities will not close.
“While we do not comment on personnel matters, we can assure the Columbia community that our facilities will continue to operate without interruption, and the student experience will not be affected,” Aiello said.
Duncan MacKenzie, interim director of the School of Visual Arts, did not respond to multiple emails requesting comment.
The college is required to send the United Staff of Columbia College a transitional plan within three business days outlining how work will be redistributed to remaining unit members, third parties or non-unit faculty members. Those three days have not passed since the specialists were laid off on Tuesday, June 30, and the union has not yet received them, said Union President Allison Geller.
Geller, enrollment operations coordinator at the college, said that the staff positions eliminated are integral to the student experience.
“It is contradictory to claim to offer experiential learning, while also eliminating a significant portion of the staff positions on a team responsible for delivering that hands-on education. Similarly, if the goal is to prepare students for the workforce, removing staff directly involved in that preparation undermines that objective,” Geller said.
Geller also cited reduced access to student workspaces as evidence of the broader effects of the cuts.
In Fall 2024, the Makerspace went from being open five days a week from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. to four days a week, with reduced hours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays.
“We can acknowledge that operating these spaces is costly, that hiring and retaining qualified staff to operate the equipment and train students in proper use and safety practices is a significant expense,” Geller said in an email to the Chronicle. “In light of the choice to eliminate the positions, a decision which will inevitably have lasting impacts on the access and capacity of these essential facilities, we have to ask: are the savings really worth it.”
Some spaces in the School of Visual Arts are essential for students to complete course work. For example, some classes require students to make prints of their work and present them in class.
The latest staff reductions come as Columbia responds to declining enrollment and a budget deficit that has grown to more than $40 million. A series of cost-cutting measures have included layoffs, administrative restructuring, increased teaching loads and the suspension of faculty sabbaticals for a second consecutive year. Enrollment fell below 4,000 students this spring for the first time in more than two decades, although the college is optimistic that it will climb in the fall.
The college also laid off four senior administrators in the spring, including former Interim President and CEO Jerry Tarrer, former Chief of Staff Laurent Pernot, Jeffrey Reuter, associate vice president of Budget, Planning and Analysis and Dirk Matthews, interim vice president of Development and Alumni Relations.
Since January 2025, the college has also laid off 54 full-time faculty members, including six in May.
Faculty and staff layoffs have become increasingly common across higher education as tuition-dependent colleges respond to declining enrollment, rising operating costs and persistent budget deficits.
Student Government Association President Amelia Lutz said spaces like the photo lab and printmaking space are integral for student learning, and noted that many students are paying the college to use them.
She encouraged current students to introduce and teach the machinery used in these spaces to incoming first-year students.
“At this point in time, when these pieces are at risk and we’re losing educators in these spaces, that is when the community we find at Columbia is most important, because, at the end of the day, as much as we are all friends, we are also all creatives,” she told the Chronicle. “We are all working together. And sometimes the best thing we can do to work together is to help each other learn and help each other grow as creatives.”
Copy edited by Venus Tapang
