---

Jeff Horn, Ph.D., a tenured history professor who received a termination notice.
MANHATTAN.EDU/COURTESY

---

By Kyla Guilfoil, Senior Writer

 Faculty at Manhattan College remain in shock and anger following the layoffs of 19 tenured and four untenured professors earlier this month, prompting a sense of betrayal and mistrust among faculty against the college administration. 

The January layoffs came after administration had told faculty in the fall that cuts would come on a “last in, first out” basis, meaning the faculty most recently hired within departments would be the first to be let go. 

When 19 tenured professors, many having served at the college for several years, were targeted in the new layoffs, faculty were left in complete shock. 

Jeff Horn, Ph.D., a history professor who has taught at the college for over two decades, was one of the tenured professors to receive an unexpected termination notice on Jan. 12. 

“This was completely unexpected,” Horn said. “We were aware that further cuts to the faculty were going to take place, the administration had made that crystal clear beginning in October, but they had at least publicly articulated a policy of last in, first out,” Horn said. 

Horn told The Quadrangle that the uncommunicated change in how administration decided to lay off faculty left both he and his colleagues in a difficult position–especially since they never were told why they were selected. 

“I’m not interested at all in saying, ‘don’t fire me, fire somebody else’,” Horn said. “What I am interested in is this administration being honest, being transparent and ensuring that those who remain understand the rules of the game.” 

Beyond the lack of clarity behind the metric used to determine the layoffs, faculty members told The Quadrangle they are also deeply concerned about the fashion through which tenured professors were fired. 

According to Manhattan College’s faculty handbook, professors who have taught at the college for more than two years must be notified of non-appointment by Sept. 1. The handbook states that the same rule applies to those who are tenured. 

However, these 23 professors were fired on Jan. 12, with only the four untenured professors having contracts that will last until June 2025. For the 19 tenured professors, their contracts will end in June 2024. 

As academic job openings occur from September to early October, the layoffs this month put the tenured faculty in a particularly damaging position. 

“The decision to lay people off Jan. 12, and to lay them off as of 15 June, I read as a violation of the handbook,” Horn said. “I read as a violation of the 1940 AAUP guidelines that the college adhered to, and I think it was done that way, because the administration believes that tenure and the faculty handbook are not important.” 

Horn said the decision to lay off tenured faculty on Jan. 12 and give them even shorter contracts than those who were untenured on the same date has also put tenured faculty in a position of possibly losing their whole careers. 

“It means that the likelihood that I could get another academic job is nearly zero,” Horn said. “That’s a problem for the ethics of an institution that claims that its goal is to believe in community and to support the whole person. We have dedicated, collectively the 23 of us, centuries of time to that goal.” 

Maeve Adams, Ph.D., a tenured English professor at the college, was not fired in this month’s layoffs, but told The Quadrangle she is concerned what these layoffs mean for both the faculty who will be forced to leave the college, and those who will remain. 

“What does this mean for their career prospects going forward? And the lack of evidence of compassion for those people and the careers that they have committed their whole lives to?” Adams said. “It’s sad to me and deeply concerning with respect to what the future holds for the rest of us.” 

Jordan Pascoe, Ph.D., a tenured professor of philosophy who has been teaching at the college since 2012, was also laid off this month. 

Pascoe said that these layoffs essentially tell Manhattan College faculty that becoming tenured actually means you lose employment protections, not gain them. 

“If you’re a faculty member employed at Manhattan College, you should not go up for tenure, because as things currently stand, getting tenure means you actually lose employment protections,” Pascoe said. “It’s nonsensical to say that what happens when you get tenure is that you have fewer employment protections and therefore can be fired more easily than someone who is untenured.”

Adams echoed Horn and Pascoe’s concerns about what this month’s layoffs will mean for continuing faculty. 

“If you give untenured faculty more than you give tenured faculty, you are suggesting that earning tenure is not an honor but a demerit,” Adams said. “Which aside from seeming unreasonable and illogical, is just a violation of the definition of the word and there are laws about how contracts are written.” 

Adams emphasized that the college’s faculty handbook uses the same framework and wording for tenure as the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), so to stray from both of those definitions of tenure protections is essentially a breach of contract. 

“They have committed in the handbook to the definition of tenure that says that by earning tenure, we earn protection, we earn benefits, and yet they are acting and firing faculty on the grounds that that definition of tenure doesn’t exist. That’s absurd.” Adams said.

Pascoe added that the decision to lay off tenured faculty in January, and without a full year’s notice, is “an egregious misinterpretation of our handbook, as well as of the AAUP’s definition of tenure, as well as of the common sense definition of tenure.” 

Adams told The Quadrangle that the layoffs this month place her and her colleagues in a worrisome state whilst continuing on at the college. 

“It makes it very hard to have faith that the college is going to adhere to any of the commitments that they have made in the handbook or anything that they say about what their objectives are and the plans for the college’s future,” Adams said. “If they are going to refuse to use language in ways that conforms to conventional usage, it makes it very hard to even know what we are doing right now.” 

Horn told The Quadrangle that he hopes students, parents and alumni voice their concerns and speak up for the legacy of the college and its Lasallian mission. 

“I’ve devoted 23 years of my life to this place,” Horn said. “I’ve given everything I had to give and I don’t want to see it move in a direction that does not reflect the Lasallian legacy, that does not reflect what this place has meant to so many people.”