On March 19, Professor of Art History Matthew Reynolds, Professor and Chair of Politics Aaron Strain and Associate Professor and Chair of Chemistry Jonathan Collins sent a list of signatures and document titled “The High Cost of Cuts” to a faculty Listserv. The document describes low morale among faculty as a result of ongoing financial changes and urges administrators to collaborate with faculty on financial decisions. Originally signed by 84 faculty members, the letter now has 91 signatures as of Friday, April 10. 

Collins explained the intention behind the document in an email to The Wire. 

“The High Cost of Cuts document tried to specifically highlight how operations at the College (and student experience) will likely degrade further as a result of falling morale,” Collins wrote. “It attempts to frame this human capital problem as the real existential threat to the College rather than slightly slower endowment growth rates.”

Twelve days later, on March 31, President Sarah Bolton shared the Board of Trustees’ decision to reduce employee benefits to a faculty Listserv. Their vote included reductions to benefits like retirement and tuition remission, which will come into effect for the 2026-27 academic year. The Board will also vote on the final 2026-27 budget in a meeting this May. 

Bolton’s email listed employees’ salary increase pool, tuition benefits allocated for dependents, the Salary Continuation Program and retirement contributions as benefits which the Board voted to reduce. 

The Board expects that changes to tuition benefits and the Salary Continuation Program will save $2 million per year by 2029, a total of $6 million. In turn, this is intended to balance what Bolton described as “20 fewer reductions in staff and faculty lines than would otherwise be needed,” as Whitman faces a $3-$4 million deficit in the 2026-27 academic year. 

According to her announcement, these changes “are the full set of retirement and tuition benefit reductions” expected for the next three years, as Trustees decided to adjust institutional budgets over a three-year period rather than making more drastic, immediate reductions. 

Citing federal decisions influencing international student applications, a lower number of college-aged students in the U.S. and changes to federal funding, Bolton described national financial pressures as major influences on Whitman’s budget. She also wrote that the Board expects these pressures could affect annual budgets for the next decade. 

In an email to The Wire, Vice President for Finance and Administration Jeff Hamrick explained the previous benefits offered by Whitman as compared to those introduced in Bolton’s message.

The Wire compiled descriptions of some of these reductions, as well as a section on faculty opinions expressed in “The High Cost of Cuts” document.

Salary Increase Pool

According to Bolton’s email, Trustees voted on a salary increase pool of 2.5% for the 2026-27 year. This pool refers to the amount of money allocated from a total payroll to supply employees with yearly salary increases. Hamrick explained the process for determining this amount, which may be allocated based on employee merit or applied equally for all employees and pulled as a percentage of their annual, or aggregate, salaries. 

“A salary increase pool is a centrally-created pool of new expense budget dollars that are indexed against the aggregate levels of salaries in various categories of employees,” Hamrick wrote. “At Whitman, we create salary increase pools for staff and faculty, against their respective aggregated salaries.”

Hamrick added that administrative departments balance their own contributions to the campus-wide pool. 

“The Provost and the Dean of the Faculty typically cleaves off a portion of their pool to manage the salary increases that come with faculty promotions,” Hamrick wrote.

Broader economic conditions also impact the dollar amount provided for this fund. In the two years following the COVID-19 pandemic, Hamrick claimed administrators introduced higher salary increase pools of around 6% and 4% to adjust for inflation and other effects of the pandemic. 

“The Office of Human Resources typically [cleaves] off a portion of its pool, per directives from the President’s Cabinet, to make equity adjustments, i.e., market-based adjustments for categories of employees (e.g., executive assistants, technology services workers, etc.) that have fallen behind their benchmarks at the national level,” Hamrick wrote.

Whitman offered salary increase pools between 1% to 3% in the last two years, according to Hamrick, and he maintained that a 2.5% increase pool is “similar to what one would find at Whitman’s peers.” 

Inside Higher Ed reported similar median percent increases from data collected by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, listing median increases of 3% amongst staff, 2.9% for administrators and 1.8% for tenure-track faculty across higher education. 

Tuition Benefits for Dependents 

Trustees also voted to begin offering tuition exchange programs rather than cash tuition benefits for employee dependents. A cash tuition benefit partially funds the education of employees’ relatives, like children or a spouse, who qualify to receive financial support for higher education. 

According to Bolton’s email, Whitman currently spends about $1.2 million per year on its cash tuition benefit. For employees hired after Aug. 21, 2026, and for new and current employees’ dependents who are born or adopted after the same date, this benefit will no longer be available. Instead, these dependents may receive tuition exchanges, which will reduce costs to the institution’s budget from cash tuition benefits.

“[T]he College will maintain the Whitman tuition remission benefit for all employee dependents, and will also soon join several tuition exchange programs that provide excellent support at a wide range of colleges and universities,” Bolton wrote. 

Tuition Exchange is a reciprocal scholarship resource available to eligible dependents of eligible employees in higher education. As a tuition exchange institution, Whitman will set the parameters for employee and dependent eligibility. 

“Going forward, we will ask employees hired on or before Aug. 21, 2026, to make use of any new tuition exchanges or consortial arrangements that the college joins before attempting to make use of legacy tuition cash grant programs,” Hamrick wrote. “There are no changes for an employee whose eligible legal dependent is already attending a college or university.”

Whitman’s current tuition remission benefits include free tuition to attend Whitman for eligible employee dependents. Moving forward, administrators are considering three tuition exchange programs or consortial arrangements to join in the coming months.  

“While the exchanges do not provide the same support as the cash benefit,” Bolton wrote, “when combined with excellent state grants for attendance at public colleges and universities and the increasingly generous financial aid programs on many campuses, they ensure affordable access to a wide range of colleges and universities for the dependents of Whitman faculty and staff.” 

Salary Continuation Program

Tenured faculty who have not already signed up for the Salary Continuation Program (SCP), which provides gradual steps toward retirement while guaranteeing stable salaries, will also be subject to reductions to their annual pay period after retirement.

Currently, tenured faculty are granted 50% of their base salary at the moment they choose to participate in the SCP for up to five years after retiring, according to Whitman’s description of SCP benefits. After the Board’s vote this spring, tenured faculty at Whitman will receive payment for the three years following retirement rather than five. 

Bolton’s email clarified that this change will affect future tenured faculty who join the SCP after this year. 

“This change does not impact anyone currently on SCP or anyone who has already signed an SCP contract. This change was recommended by a working group of faculty members, and informed by the results of the December surveys of faculty,” Bolton wrote.  

Retirement Contributions 

In addition to reducing the amount of time after retirement during which tenured faculty receive continued salary, Trustees voted to gradually decrease retirement contributions from 10% to 7% over the span of three years. This reduction will occur in stages. Retirement contributions will first decrease from their current 10% to 9% beginning on Aug. 22, 2026, then from 9% to 8% in the 2028 fiscal year and 8% to 7% in the 2029 fiscal year. 

These percentages refer to contributed funding from Whitman, which are calculated as a percent of any given employee’s base salary, as outlined in Whitman’s description of employee retirement benefits. In this system, employees contribute a percentage of their salary, as does their employer. These funds support an employee’s healthcare and living expenses after retirement, and are distributed in a retirement fund.

According to the site, “Whitman College may make a matching contribution for those participants voluntarily participating [in retirement contribution]. Beginning fiscal year 2027… an employee contribution of 2% of appointed salary unlocks a 9% match from the college for eligible employees.”  

In her email, Bolton described this change as one which affects all faculty and staff. 

“This reduction in the retirement contribution was among the most difficult things we had to decide to do this year, as it negatively impacts all faculty and staff in their efforts to prepare for retirement,” Bolton wrote.  

Faculty Morale 

The “High Cost of Cuts” document outlines the various professional and emotional consequences faculty have experienced on account of recent administrative cuts. 

Jonathan Collins described administrators’ financial decisions, particularly those spanning from 2020 to 2026, as having “corrosive effects” on both the quality of instruction and programming that faculty are able to offer students and on faculty morale. For Collins, these budget changes break a sense of trust between faculty and administrators. 

“Many faculty that I talk to are expressing a sense of grief over the loss of the career that they thought they had or could look forward to,” Collins wrote. “Every broken promise by the College moves us further towards a fully transactional relationship. There is something profoundly sad about that.” 

Matthew Reynolds sees morale as an issue that negatively impacts professors’ ability to teach and could lead some to resign. 

“I personally hope the administration and Trustees will recognize how angry we are,” Reynolds wrote. “How morale is at rock bottom. How this morale affects our teaching and undermines the student experience. We’re at a breaking point. My friends and colleagues are looking for other jobs. Many of us are considering leaving higher education altogether.” 

Reynolds believes that these cuts will have detrimental effects on Whitman’s campus and community — particularly on students. The document lists several endangered academic and professional areas of student life, including field trips and immersive learning, research opportunities, curricular innovation and more. 

“All of this makes it more difficult for students to complete their majors and get the Whitman education they are expecting,” Collins wrote.

“The High Cost of Cuts” document showcases faculty concerns as administrators announce ongoing efforts to balance Whitman’s 2026-27 budget. Reductions to employee benefits like the SCP, retirement contributions and cash tuition benefits are expected to close the $3-$4 million budget shortfall for the upcoming year, but some fear their impacts on student, faculty and staff experiences at Whitman.