Guilford College Considers Formal Step Toward Possible Faculty Layoffs

Guilford College’s Board of Trustees and administrators in recent weeks have weighed declaring financial exigency, a step that would allow the college to lay off tenured faculty, according to memos obtained by The Assembly.

The American Association of University Professors defines financial exigency—widely used across higher education—as a “severe financial crisis that fundamen­tally compromises the academic integrity of the institution as a whole and that cannot be alleviated by less drastic means.”

Guilford has struggled with sagging enrollment and high expenses, The Assembly reported last month. As a condition of loans it took out over the past decade, Guilford was required to bring in a consultant to help improve its balance sheet, and the college is on probation with its accreditor because of its finances. 

In internal and external communications over the past few weeks, Guilford officials have cited those issues as reasons to consider declaring financial exigency. They have also engaged the Guilford community in a cost-cutting process they hoped would avoid the step.

“It would be irresponsible for the College to predict what the board will do, but we are not anticipating a declaration of financial exigency tomorrow,” a college spokesperson told The Assembly on Wednesday.

The school also announced on Wednesday that it had reached an $8.5 million conservation deal with the Piedmont Land Conservancy. The Greensboro nonprofit will purchase the development rights to 120 acres of the Guilford Woods, an undeveloped tract connected to Guilford’s campus, best known as an Underground Railroad site. The group will ensure the preservation of the existing hardwood forest.

But Guilford won’t receive any payments from the deal until PLC completes a fundraising campaign, said Kevin Redding, PLC’s executive director. He estimates that the campaign will take two and a half years.

Guilford has to survive until then first. Interim Provost Kami Rowan wrote in a May 21 email to a group of faculty that “the Board Chair and Executive Committee informed the Budget Committee that financial exigency is imminent.” She said enrollment for the fall was below the college’s targets.

“Without significant changes to our financial model, we simply do not have the cash flow or revenue to continue operating,” she wrote.

Two days later, the college’s budget committee—made up of faculty and staff—wrote a memo to Dan Mosca, acting chair of the Board of Trustees, saying they could not come to a consensus about declaring financial exigency. (The board can declare exigency without the committee’s approval.)

Among other issues, the committee noted that only 54 percent of current upperclass students have enrolled for the fall. The college’s draft budget assumed 85 percent retention. (A college spokesman reached out after this story first published to dispute this finding, stating that 85 percent of rising juniors and seniors have registered for the fall. Among rising sophomores, 54 percent have registered.)

The committee said Guilford is projecting a $7.5 million hole in its 2025-26 budget. But they said declaring financial exigency might make things worse.

“We acknowledge the fact that at current the disparity between revenue and expenses serve as an existential threat to the College and its community,” the committee wrote. “We also acknowledge that a declaration of financial exigency will be a major blow to the reputation of the College which will make other College operations and revenue generation, including through Enrollment, Retention, and Advancement, an increased challenge.”

The committee recommended working to balance the budget without taking the public relations hit of issuing a formal declaration.

Because Guilford policies require the school to lay off non-tenure-track faculty before their tenured peers “except in extraordinary circumstances,” the committee argued that declaring financial exigency isn’t necessary yet. 

Acting President Jean Parvin Bordewich explained her perspective on the issue in a weekly update to the Guilford community on Friday.

“I believe that the strategy for the ‘Guilford of the future’ must double down on what is unique and most valuable at our school, and use that to recruit and retain a broader group of students who will be a good fit for Guilford and remain for four years,” she wrote. 

“But it is clear that to be fiscally prudent, we must do that with a smaller administrative staff and teaching staff because we will have fewer students and insufficient revenue to support Guilford at its current size,” Bordewich wrote. “It is possible to accomplish that without ‘financial exigency,’ or if necessary with it.”

The Assembly previously reported that Bordewich’s strategy includes flattening the administrative hierarchy, and she has signaled support for a faculty proposal to run the school through democratic councils.

Guilford leaders have asked the budget committee, in conjunction with other faculty committees, to develop a plan to balance the budget by June 15, which the broader faculty will then vote on. If they do not approve it, Bordewich can decide on a plan to present to the Board of Trustees, under Guilford policy. 

The Board of Trustees will vote on the plan by July 1, Bordewich wrote.