U. of Massachusetts at Amherst May Cut 60 Faculty Jobs Next Year

The University of Massachusetts at Amherst notified 60 nontenured faculty members this week that they would not be reappointed next year, as the institution begins to take action to reduce a projected $46-million deficit.

According to a university spokesman, Edward F. Blaguszewski, Amherst is required to give advance notice to those faculty members — who are mostly adjunct lecturers — by a certain date to leave open the option of not hiring them for the following year. “Essentially what this does is provide us the financial flexibility that we’ll need should we face a situation where we can’t afford to bring those people back,” he told The Chronicle this evening.

He added that some of the adjuncts may be reappointed, depending on how much federal stimulus money the university obtains. There are no plans to lay off tenured faculty members, although Mr. Blaguszewski said the university was open to eliminating tenured positions that are now vacant.

The notifications of nonreappointment come in the wake of a similar mailing last December, in which 31 lecturers were informed that their future with the university was in question.

Those notifications also come less than two weeks after the union that represents faculty members and librarians at Amherst and UMass-Boston reached a tentative agreement on a contract that includes a one-year pay freeze. Union officials said they hoped the agreement would persuade the university’s trustees not to raise student fees. A ratification vote is scheduled for Friday.