Town Hall discusses the future of Alma

KYLE SCHECK
PHOTOGRAPHER

MEGAN NEELEY
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

10/14/2024

On Wednesday, October. 9, the campus community held a scheduled Town Hall meeting at Presbyterian Hall to discuss the future of Alma College amidst the many issues private liberal arts colleges are working to overcome in today’s world of higher education.

The Board of Trustees, who have fiduciary responsibility over Alma College, have endorsed numerous action items. These items included a four-year budget reduction plan that tasks cabinet members with the issue of workforce reductions. It is said that reductions will be identified this coming December.

Additionally, the action items included there will be no cost-of-living adjustments and the retirement contribution made by the college will be cut in half, going from 8% to 4%. The Board of Trustees did, however, grant faculty three additional mental health days.

“This cut, when combined with below inflationary salary increases over the past [five] years, means that faculty and staff are falling behind financially at this moment in our professional lives, while also compromising financial stability in retirement. That’s a pretty devastating reality to face,” said Karen Ball, Charles A. Dana Professor of Integrative Physiology and Health Science.

“We are in a place where there just aren’t as many 18-year-olds as there were ten years ago so that means we have to adapt… to a smaller school so it continues to thrive,” said Tim Pinnow, Chief Operating Officer of Alma College, in regard to the reasoning behind the numerous cuts faculty are facing.

Faculty, on the other hand, have mixed feelings regarding the supposedly unavoidable nature of these decisions. “Based on the current financial status of the institution, I personally concur with the upper administration’s position that serious steps are necessary. That being said, our current situation was not inevitable, even with the well-known challenges facing higher education,” said Ball.

“I appreciate the transparency… However, we are in this situation because of a series of decisions that have been made over the past several years,” said Kirstin Olbertson, Professor of History.

As a result of the aforementioned circumstances, issues in retention may lead to Alma being an institution that “make[s] use of online learning,” said Pinnow.

These impending cuts have also raised concerns among the student population as they all question what this means for both their college experience and the longevity of their soon-to-be alma mater.

“Faculty and staff working conditions are student learning conditions. No matter how much faculty and staff want to support students and provide the best educations possible – and we do want to – we all have a limit on what we can do,” said Olbertson.

Simultaneously, the college is trying to reduce the usage of adjunct professors; however, “an important recruiting tool [for hiring faculty] was the benefits package, including a generous retirement contribution,” said Ball.

Although the campus community may be struggling to grasp these changes, there is still much hope for the future of Alma College. “I am confident that regardless of impact [on morale, retention, etc.], the personnel of this college remain committed to [the] provision of a quality experience for our students,” said Ball.

Ultimately, there will be continued discussion regarding maintaining the Alma experience while preparing for the future. “Eight years from now when there will be fewer colleges… at that point, supply and demand evens out, and so Alma can begin to grow again. So what we’ve go to ask ourselves how we can create a college that will survive,” said Pinnow.