Portland State University budget plan would cut 52 jobs
Dive Brief
Portland State University budget plan would cut 52 jobs
The university’s American Association of University Professors chapter has blasted officials’ $35 million deficit projection and vowed to fight faculty layoffs.
Published May 15, 2026
Ben Unglesbee
Senior Reporter
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Dive Brief:
- Portland State University leaders released an updated plan Thursday to cut some 52 jobs as the Oregon public institution tackles a projected $35 million deficit over the next two years.
- The plan calls for eliminating two degree programs and reducing another seven departments, according to a public message from PSU President Ann Cudd. Those two moves could each lead to 26 job cuts and collectively save $16 million.
- The university’s American Association of University Professors chapter vowed on Thursday to fight any faculty job cuts and advised members not to sign any documents or severance packages without first speaking with union leaders.
Dive Insight:
The latest budget plan from PSU leadership would nix degree programs in conflict resolution and university studies, a general education program. That move would save $11 million, according to Cudd.
The plan would further reduce the workforce at a handful of PSU departments:
- Educator Licensure (five full-time equivalent jobs).
- Leadership, Learning and Counseling (four FTE jobs).
- History (three FTE jobs).
- Philosophy (four FTE jobs).
- World Languages and Literature (six FTE jobs).
- The School of Earth, Environment, and Society (three FTE jobs).
- The Portland Center, a study abroad program for international students (one FTE job).
“In sharing this news, I acknowledge the pain of losing even one treasured colleague in our community,” Cudd said. “These decisions are monumental, but necessary to ensure the thriving future of PSU and to minimize impacts to our students.”
The university has taken other budget measures as well, including eliminating vacant jobs, offering early retirement options to faculty, and skipping cost-of-living salary increases for nonunion staff and university leaders.
A comment period for the latest plan is open through June 13, and university officials expect to issue a final plan that month.
Even though PSU leaders haven’t finalized their plan, the university has begun notifying tenured and continuously appointed faculty who could be laid off in order to comply with a 12-month notice requirement.
“If you received one of these notices today, we want you to hear this loud and clear: We are fighting for your job,” PSU’s AAUP chapter posted Thursday on its website.
The union said it would support academic units in offering university leaders fiscal alternatives to layoffs.
The cuts proposed Thursday are not as broad as a plan under consideration earlier this year, which contemplated closing three departments and making cuts to another 16. At the time, Cudd said deep savings were necessary to head off “a financial crisis that would jeopardize the ability of PSU to fulfill its mission.”
Leaders adjusted the plan following campus feedback and shifts in departmental needs, according to Cudd.
The AAUP chapter has opposed not only deep cuts at the university but also the underlying financial premise for them. In a post the day before Cudd released the latest plan, the union cited improving financial metrics at the university, including reduced costs per credit hour, a rising index measure of its financial health and increased revenue.
The group also questioned officials’ estimated budget gap for the 2026-2028 fiscal period.
“The $35 million deficit figure presented as the warrant for further cuts is a projection, not a measurement,” the PSU AAUP said. “It is assembled from administrative assumptions about future enrollment, future costs, and future revenue.”
The union pointed, for example, to the administration’s projected fiscal 2026 deficit of $10 million, which was nearly double the fiscal 2025 deficit of $5.4 million. However, the union pointed to positive indicators for fall 2026 enrollment, such as higher first-year applications compared to the year before.
“The administration is budgeting a deterioration its own results don’t show, and then citing the budgeted deterioration as evidence of crisis,” the group said.
The university and its leaders have continued to cite the $35 million figure. On a webpage devoted to the budget-cutting efforts, the university said it must address the gap so it can “continue to offer an accessible, affordable education for future generations.”
Between 2019 and 2024, fall enrollment at PSU fell 21.2% to 19,951 students, according to federal data. Fall enrollment declined to 19,687 students in 2025, according to PSU data. The declines have hurt state funding — which is tied to the number of credentials awarded to Oregon residents — as well as tuition revenue.
Filed Under: Faculty and Staff, Finance
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