On Wednesday morning, University of Missouri-Kansas City officials announced that "some of our ranks will be leaving UMKC."
An email interim chancellor and provost Barbara Bichelmeyer sent to faculty and staff stated that the university had worked for months "to reduce our deficit and to make strategic investments." And, she said, with a new fiscal year approaching, it was "time to act on these decisions."
"In the past week, 17 of our colleagues were notified that their positions have been eliminated," Bichelmeyer wrote. "Of course, this is an incredibly difficult time for those who will be leaving UMKC."
According to university officials, 11 of the layoffs are academic positions, and six are in administrative units.
UMKC put a hiring freeze in place in April 2017 due to severe state budget cuts. The university planned to eliminate about $24 million in spending over the next two years. In May 2017, UMKC laid off 30 employees.
Editor's note: KCUR is licensed to the University of Missouri Board of Curators and is an editorially independent community service of the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Laura Spencer is an arts reporter at KCUR 89.3. You can reach her on Twitter at @lauraspencer.
