Rider faculty agrees to a two-year wage freeze

Planned faculty layoffs at Rider University and the elimination of some majors have been averted as a result of a two-year wage freeze approved by the faculty union.

"It was a pretty bitter pill," Jeff Halpern, contract administrator for the Rider chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said Friday.

The alternative - to go to arbitration over the cuts first proposed by the school in Lawrence Township, N.J., on Oct. 29 - would have been too disruptive to students, Halpern said.

"The negative impact on the students was too great to go through the arbitration process," Halpern said. He would not disclose Thursday's vote total, saying only that the approval "wasn't overwhelming." The union represents 500 faculty members, half of whom are full-time employees.

Rider president Gregory G. Dell'Omo said the agreement, approved by the board of trustees Friday, "creates a climate in which collaboration on Rider's longer-term priorities such as strategic planning, development of new program offerings, recruitment and retention initiatives, and ongoing evaluation of all academic programs can be accomplished successfully."

In response to a drop in enrollment the last several years, Rider informed the union of its intent to shut down 12 undergraduate majors and a graduate program, and scale back some majors to minors, effective next school year.

That would be accompanied by layoffs of 14 full-time faculty members, the university said. Additionally, five vacant full-time faculty positions were to be eliminated, and an undetermined number of part-time faculty were not going to be rehired.

Rider said the layoffs and program reductions would save close to $2 million annually. The university has a $216 million operating budget and reported a current deficit of $7.6 million.

Rider enrolls slightly more than 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students at its Lawrenceville and Princeton campuses, down 1,000 students from the 2009-10 school year.