Brady Vinlove/The Mossy Log
Throughout the country, colleges and universities have faced mounting financial challenges as a result of a national decline in college enrollment, the effects of economic inflation and various attacks on higher education by the Trump administration. These issues have resulted in mass layoffs at many institutions and a restructuring of institutional programs to save costs. As a consequence of the decline in hiring, many college faculty and staff have found themselves taking on work from co-workers who left their institution.
President Robin Holmes-Sullivan discussed Lewis & Clark’s own financial issues in an email sent to the LC community on Sept. 8. In the email, Holmes-Sullivan noted the impact of both underenrollment and lower than expected net tuition revenue from first-year students on the college’s budgeted College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) operating deficit. One consequence of this circumstance is the implementation of an institutional hiring freeze.
“As we move through the budget process, we have suspended hiring in CAS and Common Services, except for positions considered mission-critical, such as those impacting the health and safety of our community,” Holmes-Sullivan wrote.
The hiring freeze was one of the measures the college implemented in order to address its financial troubles.
However, in an Oct. 9 Finance Division Update, Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Operations Andrea Dooley stated that the college’s operating results for 2024-25 outperformed the institution’s financial expectations.
“While the Board had approved a modest $0.4 million operating deficit, the College concluded the year with a smaller-than-anticipated $0.2 million shortfall,” she wrote. “Undergraduate enrollment of 2120 was more than 100 students below budget and resulted in an estimated $5 million revenue shortfall for CAS. However, good expense controls in both CAS and Common Services, strong returns on short-term investments, and a higher endowment draw helped to significantly mitigate these revenue challenges.”
In a statement to The Mossy Log, Associate Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer Helen Howell said that the college has actually gained full-time employees over the last five years.
“In terms of numbers, Lewis & Clark has actually had a modest increase, with a net increase of 4 staff FTE (full-time equivalency, which is how employers measure total workforce) over the last 5 years. These numbers are always a snapshot of a particular moment in time, but the additions reflect things like staffing to support the addition of new sports teams (men’s soccer, women’s lacrosse), the creation of the Career Accelerator, and the expansion of First Year Experience,” she said.
Howell discussed the way the hiring freeze impacts HR’s approach to managing the process of filling positions.
“When a position opens up, the hiring freeze lets us pause and consider, should this position be filled in the same way it previously was filled? Or is this a chance to rethink the work of a department or team, to consider ways to reorganize or do things differently?” she explained. “Sometimes the freeze is just a pause before a similar hire, but sometimes the freeze gives us a chance to streamline or expand what particular positions do, based on current need. Either way, we are thoughtfully taking the time to make sure we are staffing effectively.”
Despite the college’s ability to alleviate some of the financial strain imposed by the deficit, the hiring freeze has remained in place. This, as well as the regular turnover associated with voluntary departures, has pushed many administrators at LC to take on more responsibilities and implement new approaches to managing their offices.
One example of this is the shifts that have occurred within the Division of Student Life since the departures of former Vice President of Student Life (VSPL) Evette Castillo-Clark and former Director of Student Engagement Tamara Ko. In response to the vacancy left by Castillo-Clark, Ben Meoz, who formerly worked as the director of Campus Living, was appointed by Holmes-Sullivan as the interim vice president of Student Life.
“While Evette was here, she really worked closely with me to keep developing the division. So when she departed, there was an opportunity to step in and be an interim vice president and support the whole student life, and that has kind of then converted into being able to do that in a permanent fashion,” Meoz said in an interview with The Mossy Log.
When Meoz shifted to being interim vice president of Student Life, responsibilities were redistributed throughout the division, and Jonathan Manz was appointed as interim assistant dean of students. When Meoz shifted to being interim vice president of Student Life, and responsibilities were redistributed throughout the office. On Aug. 18, Meoz’s duration as the interim vice president of Student Life and dean of students ended and he was formally appointed to the permanent role.
Manz serves as the director of First-Year Experience — the office that manages New Student Orientation and helps new students transition to life at LC — and as interim assistant dean of students. His responsibilities include managing NSO, the New Student Peer Mentor program and the Student Academic Affairs Board tutoring program.
“When he was first pivoted over to that office, I took on a few of the things for him (Meoz). Then our assistant director in Campus Living, Theresa Brostowitz, was named interim director. And so I’ve been working with her for the last eight or nine months just on an interim basis. I then took on a couple of other things that Ben had done behind the scenes,” Manz said in an interview with The Mossy Log.
Unlike the position of vice president for Student Life, the director of Student Engagement has not been filled, even in an interim capacity. Rocky Campbell, the associate vice president of Student Engagement and experiential learning, spoke to his experience in Student Engagement. This year, the office hired an additional graduate assistant, increasing the number working for the office from one to two. This shift has helped to distribute the responsibilities that once belonged to Ko.
“I helped a lot with Student Engagement before. I don’t know everything that we did there, but I know a lot and I worked very closely with Tamara, and that helped a lot. This year we have a second graduate assistant in that office, which had already been set up before Tamara’s departure to try to give the office more support and before those graduate assistants have previously worked in our office. It’s been very helpful to have them kind of step in and immediately support that,” Campbell said.
In addition to relying on graduate assistants, Student Engagement has also benefitted from the work of Melanie McManamon, the First-Year Experience (FYE) coordinator who also took on the role of interim assistant director for Student Engagement this year.
“The staff member that works with FYE, that works with me, Melanie McManaman, has recently taken on some responsibility at Student Engagement because of the departure of Tamara Ko over the summer. So she’s spent a little less time with FYE because she’s devoting some time to Student Engagement,” Manz said.
Meoz elaborated on the thought processes that go into managing vacancies within the Student Life division.
“It’s really looking at the whole of the division and looking at the teams that are closest to where those vacancies are to say, ‘what support can we be lending to each other? During this particular moment, this gap.’ And also, ‘how does this present an opportunity for us to become more familiar with the work of our colleagues and just provide more support because of that, to become more knowledgeable and know what a year in the life of that office looks like?’” he said.
He clarified that no programs have been stopped entirely in response to budgetary constraints, but some, such as the VPSL Advisory Board and Peer Collective Leadership Summit, have been implemented in the semester later than usual.
Manz stated that NSO was shortened this year in part due to financial constraints, but also as a reflection of student feedback.
“This year’s New Student Orientation was a day shorter than it had been since I’ve been here. That certainly was a financial decision,” he said. “Our students are saying the schedule is a little busy. Let’s just see what we can do with four days instead of five. So we cut a day this year. We still feel pretty good about the student experience and the information that we’re able to get to them and how it’s retained and used. That’s one example of how we changed what we’re offering to help meet some budget constraints, but still try to respond to what students are telling us through their feedback.”
Campbell echoed Meoz’s approach to reassessing the structure of staff roles and responsibilities by finding ways to reform existing practices in the workplace.
“I think my experience is that, in general, out of situations like this, we find streamlined opportunities that can improve everyone’s experience are things that we haven’t really been forced to think of before,” Campell said.
While Student Life has had to adapt to the budgetary constraints of the current financial situation, other offices have had the ability to fill vacancies, helping to mitigate the surplus of responsibilities distributed among current employees.
Though the Office of Admissions dealt with two vacant positions for much of the semester, it has largely avoided dealing with the negative impacts of the college’s budgetary issues by virtue of its role in attracting students to attend LC. Vice President of Admissions & Financial Aid Eric Staab elaborated on the way his office has managed the current financial situation.
“The admissions office had some impact, for sure, but we’ve also had the administration acknowledge the budgetary constraints on the college have been because of enrollment challenges. It doesn’t make sense to cripple the division that’s bringing in the net tuition revenue. So nonetheless, we’re doing what we can on our side to reduce our expenses without harming the prospect of our recruitment efforts,” he said.
Staab said that position vacancy and budgetary constraints offer an opportunity for the office to assess and reconfigure various roles within the workplace.
“In my career, it’s not uncommon that we face some budgetary challenges. And so, I’ve gotten kind of used to having to rethink the budget. Whenever a counselor leaves the office, I always remind my AVP (Associate Vice President) for admissions or director of admissions, depending on which college I’m working at, that it doesn’t mean it’s a loss, it means it’s an opportunity to rethink how that position was constructed in our office to begin with. So we have to look at these as opportunities more than losses,” Staab said.
Campbell stated the importance of using the financial situation as an opportunity to strengthen our institution.
“I try to remind myself that that’s the interesting problem that we’re all working on — trying to find a solution for that in the midst of all these economic changes and headwinds that we’re all facing as individuals. But also as a community, do we build something that brings the best of what we’ve already offered and then, maybe provides a new twist or opportunity for those,” he said.
Manz stressed that despite the uncertainty of the current climate, he appreciates the leadership of Holmes-Sullivan in managing the ongoing budgetary issues.
“It’s trying times, but the people are here, and the reason I’m here is I really do enjoy working with the students in this college. We really do have a great campus environment. I think very highly of President Robin, and I say that having been at eight other college campuses, I’ve seen some great presidents and I’ve seen some head scratchers. I really am grateful for the leadership here,” Manz said.
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