Nico Rivera
Sarah Buchholtz
Features Editors
On Thursday, Feb. 5, 22 employees were laid off from various offices around campus. Many of these staff members worked in the Advising, Planning and Experiential Learning center (APEX), the libraries and the writing center. Gillian Lee from the writing center, Amy Sexton and Dottie Sines from the libraries, and Jenni Griffin, Paul Seling, Linda Weaver and Ashleigh Best from APEX, were let go. This was a huge shift in the campus community, with staff and students feeling the consequences.
Mary Lepore ’26 is a senior who has been working in the writing center for three years. The writing center serves as a highly-recommended resource on campus for students to go when looking for advice or guidance on their academic writing, including their Independent Study (I.S.). Lepore has been affected in many ways because of Lee’s layoff. “I work[ed] personally with Gillian for my I.S. Working with her was very helpful for me personally. She was also a mentor to me, having worked with her for many years … Both of our full time writing center staff have masters [degrees]. They’ve worked in writing centers for many years; both of them [have] worked here for 10-plus years … because I don’t have the experience, I’m not equipped to help students in the same capacity that Gillian and Tessa are. A lot of Gillian’s weekly recurring appointments have been shifted over to different students, including me … I’m worried because I know I’m not going to be able to help them in that same way, because we’re all struggling through this change together. It’s hard to have a student come in and be able to tell them and give them this reassurance and support when I know I am not [able to]. Gillian is the full time writing center staff, and she’s here to support in a different way than I can in my capacity. So I guess I’m worried about supporting students who are in the same situation as me … This very sudden abrupt change to the staffing has been the most significant change to the writing center since I’ve been here.”
Elora Agsten is the Learning Engagement Librarian in Andrews Library. According to her staff member web page, she “work[s] to develop a dynamic library and information literacy curriculum to support our diverse community of learners.” Elora spoke about how the layoffs have affected her work in the library and her fellow staff members in the library system.
“In the Libraries, Dottie Sines, who did interlibrary loan, and Amy Sexton, who prepared books and other items to go out for circulation, were laid off. While both of those roles are behind the scenes, they were key players in helping the Libraries run efficiently for students, faculty and staff, as well as helping to get items to our partner libraries around the world. I’ve already had research appointments with I.S. students who need resources from libraries across the world, and we do not yet have a new procedure to get it to them. I think it’s important to remember that not all resources are easily available online, both Amy and Dottie played critical roles in getting information to students easily and at no cost to the student.”
When asked about the impact of the layoffs on library staff, Elora said, “We’re devastated. We’ve lost Dottie and Amy in the Libraries, but also many of our amazing building partners in APEX and the writing center. There’s a lot of confusion and hurt about why this was done with no notice for the affected staff members or, for us who remain, to have a chance to prepare for changes in our duties. All of these people are incredibly valued members of our community and to not even have a chance to say goodbye is devastating.” Reflecting on how the layoffs would affect her role and other staff members in the library, Elora responded, “It’s still unclear, but I imagine everyone will have to put more on their plate, so to speak. The problem is that our plates, like everyone across campus, are already very full. We’re all human; there’s only so much we can hold until other things start to fall off.”
APEX has taken some of the hardest hits from the unexpected layoffs. APEX’s mission statement declares that the center works to provide students with the “highest caliber of integrated mentoring that supports and reinforces strong academic skills development and access to high impact opportunities for transformative educational experiences.” Some APEX staff are in fear of speaking up since learning of the firings, as “it’s been made clear how expendable we are.”
Amber Garcia, a professor of psychology, stated how important APEX is to faculty and students. When asked about how the layoffs have affected the psychology department, she said, “One of the events we were planning in the psychology department was about opportunities for finding internships. Paul Seling is my go-to person for that. He ran an event with my FYS [First-Year Seminar] students last semester; he was amazing. Denison has 20 staff members in their career services office; we have two right now. I spend part of my weekend looking on Handshake for job and internship opportunities for my students, which I already do, but now I feel more pressure to do more of that work because it feels like there are fewer resources and fewer people who can help them with that.”
APEX is a tool that is utilized across campus, whether that be from faculty or students. Garcia mentions how important APEX is to the campus community, “[APEX] is a huge marketing tool for the College; it is a huge selling point. I was on the provost search committee in the fall, and it was something that every single provost candidate, who came to campus, mentioned that they were impressed with. It was almost the first thing they mentioned as being one of our strengths at The College of Wooster.”
Apart from APEX being a huge part of campus life, Garcia also mentioned the importance of the administrative coordinators. “In my own building [Morgan Hall], we are currently without an administrative coordinator. I have students who need reimbursements for their I.S. research, and I’m not sure exactly how to help them. Our administrative coordinators on this campus are amazing and knowledgeable, and allow me to do my job as a teacher, advisor, research better, and [they] help support all faculty. Without an administrative coordinator in our building, it takes time away from my teaching, research and advising.”
