Hiring and Firing Bytes

Here’s the latest appointment news …

Brooklyn College has picked Karen L. Gould, provost and vice president for academic affairs at California State University at Long Beach, as its next president, The New York Times reports.
The president of Bucknell University, Brian C. Mitchell, said Wednesday that he will step down next June, Philly.com reports.
Warren D. Wolfson, a justice on the Illinois Appellate Court, has been appointed interim dean of the DePaul University College of Law, which is still reeling from the sudden dismissal last week of respected Dean Glen Weissenberger, the Chicago Tribune reports.

In other news …

The wait is over. Harvard University announced this week that it is laying off 275 staff members and trimming the hours of another 40 workers, thanks to its tanking endowment, The Harvard Crimson reports. No faculty jobs will be cut. Meanwhile, many Harvard students and employees are wondering why the university is firing people when, despite its endowment losses, it’s still sitting on a big pile of money, the Boston Globe reports: “The fact that this is happening at Harvard, who is still sitting on a chest of billions and remains the richest university in the world, shows it is pursuing this incredibly narrow path of naked self interest,’’ said Geoff Carens, a library assistant and union representative who [organized a rally this week] to protest the cuts. “They’re using this drop in the endowment as an excuse to justify really terrible cuts that will have a disastrous impact on the surrounding communities.’’
Another Ivy League university — Princeton — will offer early-retirement incentives to workers 55 and over, who have at least 10 years of service at the university and whose age plus tenure equals 80 years or more, the Associated Press reports. The move is part of an effort to slash expenditures in the face of an expected 30-percent drop in the university’s endowment.
Washington State University will kill three academic programs and eliminate 360 positions as it tries to slice its budget by $54-million over the next two years, the Puget Sound Business Journal reports. Of those jobs due to be cut, about 167 are vacant, while another 116 are currently occupied, the newspaper notes. In addition, another 47 employees have opted to retire early and others will have their hours cut.
The University of Nevada at Reno is slashing 279 positions in response to a 15-percent reduction in its state budget, the Associated Press reports.