(NECN: Lauren Collins) - The president of Darmouth College says it will lay off about 76 staff members, a move that will save the school 100 million dollars over two years.
Dartmouth president Dr. Jim Yong Kim says he and the college trustees worked very hard to close a $100 million budget gap with fairness and compassion, "and to that end we've taken a number of measures to avoid layoffs including offering voluntary retirement, reducing hours, eliminating unfilled positions and freezing salaries."
But dozens of non-teaching employees will lose their job. 38 notices go out this week, a comparable number in April. 60 percent of those layoffs target the professional and managerial levels, the rest affect hourly employees.
President Kim says, "that represents about two percent of the non teaching workforce of thirty four hundred."
The positions amount to a small fraction of the total budget cuts --but SEIU Local 560 president Earl Sweet considers last year's layoffs, retirements and unfilled positions when estimates the actual reduction is closer to 11 percent of Dartmouth's staff.
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He fears, "there's more to come and I don't think this is the end of it by and stretch of the imagination."
The union issued a statement Monday that reads, in part, "these layoffs are a rush to judgement and appear to be a decision that was preordained as a part of a hidden agenda to take advantage of the economic crisis."
"I don't think they made the case that any layoff is necessary," says Senior Eric Schildge of the group Dartmouth Students Stand With Staff.
In a show of solidarity, hundreds of students, faculty and staff gathered here on the campus green last week for a candle light vigil in protest of any potential layoffs.
Schildge also says, "there's probably about 700 or 800 student signatures on our petition" that calls for the college to delay layoffs until union negotiations are complete.
President Kim says the finances can't wait.
"What we want to do is to get to a point of instead of having to think year after year about more layoffs, about more cuts, we want to get this done so we can turn our attention to the academic missions. And we feel what we've done here will allow us to do just that."
