FILE - Portland State University has released a final layoffs plan for represented faculty and academic staff. The PSU campus in Portland, Ore. on June 29, 2024.
Anna Lueck / OPB
Faculty and staff layoffs are still coming to Portland State University. But they’re not as severe as initially projected, according to a finalized retrenchment plan released by the university Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, union leaders say the school’s overall financial sustainability plan lacks vision and could backfire if cuts continue.
A total of 36 faculty and academic staff will lose their jobs and three positions will be reduced from full-time to part-time in PSU’s new plan. Portland State had previously announced a plan for 52 layoffs in May. The cuts amount to nearly $15.9 million in savings for PSU.
This final layoff count only covers university workers represented by the faculty union, PSU American Association of University Professors. It comes after several campus-wide comment periods, meetings with people in affected departments and union negotiations over the cuts.
“While this has been a challenging time for PSU — and the loss of even one academic colleague is painful — I do find comfort in the fact that this final plan reflects many hours of hard work across many campus partners,” said PSU President Ann Cudd. “It achieves all of our required deficit reduction goals and it minimizes the number of involuntary academic position reductions.”
The layoffs are a key part of the university’s multi-year effort to shore up a projected $35 million budget shortfall before the start of the 2027-28 school year.
Like Oregon’s other public universities, Portland State’s financial woes are largely driven by years of declining enrollment, increasing costs related to personnel wages and retirement benefits and stagnant state funding.
Budget balancing work began last year. But the faculty reductions that came along with that work have only come into focus over the past few months.
Samuel Sennott, a tenured professor, was notified his job could be cut in May. He, along with five other represented staff in PSU’s College of Education, received a final layoff notice Tuesday.
“I just can’t believe what’s happening,” said Sennott. “It feels dystopian.”
Sennott, who doesn’t know why his position was cut, said the university’s restructuring process has been confusing and has felt insincere.
“I understand a budget crunch, but not working collaboratively [with faculty] in good faith feels very surprising,” he said.
FILE - Portland State University faculty and staff protest against workforce cuts outside a board of trustees meeting on January 30, 2026.
Tiffany Camhi / OPB
The details in the final plan look similar to May’s proposed layoffs.
The University Studies and Conflict Resolution departments will be eliminated.
University Studies is PSU’s unique approach to general education requirements. Eliminating that department makes up the bulk of cost savings for the school, at close to $11 million. Twenty people represented by the faculty union will be laid off in that department. (The university is currently reimagining its general education courses.)
Reductions are also coming to humanities-based departments, such as World Languages and Literature, Philosophy and History. The School of Earth, Environment and Society was set to lose three represented faculty to layoffs, but that number is now down to zero.
Faculty and staff spared from cuts were largely replaced by voluntary retirements and resignations.
Although layoff negotiations have somewhat blunted the impact on faculty, union leaders are still pushing for the university to pause all job cuts. They say PSU’s restructuring efforts could be premature and hurt the university in the long run.
“We’re hurting ourselves. We’re condemning ourselves,” said PSU-AAUP President Bill Knight. “We’re cutting in the wake of a failure of investment.”
PSU’s union leaders have argued that administrators should be looking to grow the school rather than make cuts. It’s a refrain that PSU leaders appeared to have taken to heart when a proposal to boost the school’s marketing and recruitment efforts materialized in June.
Over a dozen local and state leaders are also calling for a pause on planned budget cuts, hoping for more support for public universities in next year’s legislative session.
Oregon is far behind other states when it comes to funding higher education. The state ranks 46th in the nation in per-student funding for public universities, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.
Knight said state lawmakers he’s met with have signaled support for additional university funding. Gov. Tina Kotek is also backing a set of recommendations to boost Oregon’s economy. One recommendation calls for more higher education funding.
“There are solutions for us. Legislators across the board understand that that is a crisis situation and has to be addressed,” Knight said.
But Portland State administrators don’t appear willing to bet on lawmakers coming through with additional funding or enrollment rebounding anytime soon. PSU leaders say they can’t continue to spend down the university’s reserve funds while waiting for the legislature to catch up.
“We have a short runway for dealing with our problems on our own terms,” said Cudd. “If we don’t act now, then our financial future and our ability to respond will be radically constrained.”
Faculty who received final layoff notices will be employed at Portland State until June 2027. Represented staff who got notices will work until the end of 2026. Union leaders say they will continue to look for ways to negotiate over the cuts.
Even though this layoff deal is finalized, more job slashing could still be on the way for university workers not represented by PSU’s faculty union.
