The Voice Staff

Reflection Piece

Last Thursday, Feb. 5, leadership at The College of Wooster faced scrutiny as a result of layoffs of 22 staff members across various departments. Much of the scrutiny came as a result of the swiftness of the terminations, as affected staff members were only notified on the day of their removal. These removals led to an abundance of backlash, with many citing the terminations as unjust because those who were removed were not granted ample notice to plan and seek subsequent employment.

One group of students that has been particularly vocal on the matter is the campus’ student athlete population. Despite little direct effect to the athletics department and President McCall’s emphasis that no athletic teams were cut, Wooster’s athletes have not shied away from expressing their opinions on the matter — consistently expressing a common sense of empathy for those affected. “I feel upset about the mass layoffs. I believe other actions could have been taken before resorting to firing many without letting them know,” an anonymous student said. “I think, though, this was the most beneficial to Anne [McCall] alone though so she took it.” 

This sentiment was echoed by an anonymous student athlete who stated, “I’m upset with it. And the big thing is, I’m upset that they didn’t tell anyone [it] was happening, because this is something you know in advance, and they might say like, ‘Oh, we didn’t know until Monday.’ You know these things. You don’t just do this. You make these plans months in advance.”

Tensions and discontent regarding the layoffs were widespread this past week on campus. In a survey distributed across campus, 142 students expressed their opinions on the matter. Of the 142 responses, 25 were from student athletes — 18% of the respondents. Overall, the survey revealed student athlete opinions, and the opinions of the campus population as a whole, to be very negative towards the layoffs. An assertive 93 respondents said they felt “Extremely Negative” in response to the situation, while an additional 30 reported feeling “Negative.” These tallies reveal an extremely apparent discontent towards the matter with 85% of respondents citing some form of displeasure with McCall’s explanation of the layoff. The student athlete vote undoubtedly played a response in these sentiments. “I am deeply upset that the College has reached a point where we must lay off so many staff members so suddenly,” one student athlete said. “We are a small school and these layoffs cut out a substantial part of our community and left many people hurt.”

Echoes of last week’s layoffs continue to circulate campus with much of the campus community, many of whom are student athletes, unified under a negative perception of the events. “I want to know what will happen after this semester ends. She said she isn’t done, so I am concerned that professors may be attacked. What departments and majors will we lose?” an anonymous student athlete questioned. This thought was concluded by another student athlete who stated, “You [Anne McCall] couldn’t even give us a good explanation on it. I just want transparency. I don’t want the school to go bankrupt, but I would like to know the logic and what decisions were made here and weeks ago.”

Despite these sentiments, student athletes submitted fewer “Negative” and “Extremely Negative” responses to the questions of “What are your feelings towards the mass layoff event that happened on February 5th?” and “What are your feelings towards the 13th president of The College of Wooster, Dr. Anne E. McCall’s explanation for the mass layoff?” Only 64% of student athletes had negative responses to the mass layoff event whereas 94.3% of non-student athletes responded negatively. A similar phenomenon occurred for the question regarding Anne McCall’s explanation of the mass layoff with 91% of non-student athletes and 68% of student athletes responding negatively. Some anonymous reasoning for this difference in opinion regarding the mass layoff includes: 

  • “While I understand that cost cutting measures need to happen, I believe how the administration went about it was disrespectful to the workers”
  • “I don’t think any of it was right. There was not enough notice given, there did not appear to be any attempts to decrease the budget before this, and if there was students were not informed much about it. As a student athlete, I do not think people should lose their jobs but I also think athletics was disproportionately affected. She used the excuse that 50% of the student body participates in athletics, but almost everyone at this school uses APEX, almost everyone uses the finance office, and everyone works with people in galpin hall to pay their tuition. Yes I am a student athlete here, but I am here for academics and it feels as though a lot of the resources that I have used over the last two years have gone away. THOSE were the selling points for this school, not our football team. Staff members here are already stressed because they do not get compensated for all of the amazing work they do at this college. And now they have twice as much work sense they have to take on the responsibilities of others.”
  • “I feel like the people that got laid off weren’t doing shit anyway. We got too many faculty members just sitting on their ass all day. Maybe we can scam our students a little less than we are now because we aren’t paying as many people anymore.”