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Alverno College declares financial emergency and plans to cut programs
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The Alverno College Board of Trustees has declared a financial emergency and is cutting a third of its undergraduate programs and a quarter of its graduate programs, the school announced Friday.
Kathy Hudson, board president, said the measures would “ultimately position Alverno College for a more financially sustainable future.” She added, “We remain dedicated to providing students with a transformational educational experience.”
As part of the restructuring, the South Side Milwaukee college, which has a history dating back 137 years, will cut 25 full-time faculty positions and 12 full-time staff positions.
College spokesperson Jean O’Toole said in May that the projected deficit for the fiscal year ending June 30 would be about $9 million. Publicly available records indicate the school has run a deficit in four of the past five years, ranging from $1.8 million to $3.7 million.
All undergraduate students will be able to complete their current coursework. Twenty-five graduate students will have their courses cut before completion, according to the press release. Alverno is seeking an agreement with other academic institutions to allow graduate students to complete their study programs elsewhere.
The track and field athletic program will also be discontinued.
In the restructuring, the college is essentially focusing on its core strengths – nursing, education, psychology and social work, business, communications, science and integrated studies. The school has gained international attention for its capability-based and assessment-as-learning approach to education, in which students sit around tables rather than in rows of desks and must demonstrate what they know. No letter grades are given.
The college is cutting courses like cosmetic science, English, history and math. It is discontinuing graduate programs in music and liturgy and music therapy.
Alverno is a four-year Catholic women’s college. Its precursor was the Escola Normal São José, founded to teach School Sisters of São Francisco to be parish teachers. In 1936, the school became Alverno Teachers College, and a decade later it became Alverno College, a four-year liberal arts college.
Today, it has a strong history of attracting nontraditional students, first-generation college students, and students of color. Alverno says more than two-thirds of its graduates live and work in Wisconsin. The college said student enrollment was about 1,300 students and that employment was equivalent to 144 full-time faculty and 165 staff.
The announcement in Alverno comes as colleges and universities across Wisconsin and the nation face demographic and financial challenges. In recent years, several schools have closed, considered closing, or faced belt-tightening measures. More recently, Concordia University Wisconsin was created to lay off 24 people at its Mequon campus at the end of this academic year.
Kelly Meyerhofer of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.