A change in leadership

During the 2014-2015 school year, MVNU said goodbye to 2 percent of its faculty in a series of staff cuts meant to get the school financially back on its feet.

These cuts, combined with regular staff turnover, have added up to quite a bit of change on campus this fall. Students returned to quite a few new faces, along with familiar staff members now wearing different or multiple hats.

Much of the turnover has occurred in positions directly related to student life. Among the major shuffling that has taken place, MVNU now has a new women’s basketball coach, director of campus life, VP of student life, and career services coordinator. Instead of one residential life director, we now have two co-directors.

MVNU President Dr. Henry Spaulding said that while this may seem like a lot of change, most of it is just standard. Change can be positive, he added, and in some cases the new hires also have led to consolidated job descriptions, increased employee efficiency and improved the University’s overall financial position.

Spaulding emphasized that these changes are not a sign of instability or anything students and faculty should be worried about. “Mass faculty protest would be instability…” or if the school was “dealing with embezzlement,” but none of these types of issues are present, he said.

In fact, Spaulding says MVNU’s financial position has improved since the spring. “We have rounded the corner,” he said.

The University cut 2 percent of faculty last year, and planned on removing another 3 percent, but Spaulding says that will not be necessary.

Instead, MVNU will try to refill some of the vacated positions starting this year, and will look at incrementally raising salaries over the next several years until the school is in a more competitive state for hiring new faculty.