Leo Woods

73 Tremont St.

Across the university, 30 staff members supported students before, during and after their time at Suffolk. They helped students navigate the complexities of higher education. They supported logistics for countless programming events.

And now, those same staff members cleaned out their desks ahead of the start of November, grappling with what is next after Suffolk University eliminated their positions in a round of 30 layoffs.

Suffolk administration made the layoffs, which were all staff members, not faculty, to strengthen the university’s long-term finances as attacks on higher education continue, President Marisa Kelly described in a recent conversation with The Suffolk Journal.

The severance packages of these laid-off staff members include a non-disparagement clause that prohibits them from making any negative public statements about the University. The Journal spoke with several of these former staff members, but their identities will not be revealed to protect the packages they now rely on as they figure out what is next. The University declined to comment on the clause.

Each department has work that keeps campus departments up and running. Whether it be ordering paper or setting up tables for an event, these are tasks that need to get done, but directors often don’t have the time for. It is duties like these that are taken on by administrative coordinators, several of whom from across the university were laid off in this round. 

One staff member who was laid off said that much of their daily to-dos were completing all of the logistical tasks needed to execute the office’s ideas and larger projects. 

“All of these jobs are doing something, either other people will take that on or tasks will be lost,” a laid off staff member said. “The grunt work still needs to get done, someone still has to do the work that no one else will do.” 

Finding a new job to pay the bills, another laid off staff member said, is not the difficult part. What feels like an unlikely reality is finding one that offers what their role at Suffolk did: waking up excited to come to campus everyday thanks to a fulfilling, impact-driven work and a vibrant community of students, faculty and staff. The now-former staff member said they were shocked to find out they were being laid off, ending their time in a role they were committed to and believed in.

For many, the work they were doing at Suffolk was about much more than completing a to-do list.

“I care about [the students] and that was not part of the job description,” an anonymous laid off staff member said.

The care that staff members have for the community can’t be left with the job. For some, it’s the hardest part of leaving. 

A long term staff member, who spoke to The Journal on the basis of anonymity due to concerns about their own job security, said that these cuts and layoffs are going to also impact the staff members that remain, adding another challenge to their ability to continue performing within their own roles. 

“It’s not like there’s any negative feelings towards Suffolk itself, it’s just been very difficult for staff to absorb all of the cuts and changes and things that tend to fall squarely on the staff members,” the staff member said. 

While many of those impacted acknowledged that cuts have to happen, some question why these student-facing and academic support staff positions are the ones to be let go. 

“They had to cut something, but what does this decision mean? What were the other choices? What direction do they want to go in with these student facing positions?” a laid off staff member said.  

Suffolk University is not the only institution put in the position of cuts. Many of the staff members, both those who lost their jobs and those who didn’t, understood this. However, some questioned the positions that were being cut. 

A long term staff member said that academic support positions are essential to the operation of the school, however these are the very positions that faced cuts last month. 

“There’s a question of what the vision is from the administration, what do we want to turn into,” the long-term staff member said. 

This round of layoffs followed the elimination of 35 positions over the summer to total 65 layoffs for the academic year. University leadership do not anticipate needing to make any other budget or efficiency-based layoffs under current circumstances, Kelly previously told The Journal.

“The difficult decision to lay off employees in October was informed by the needs of the University in a challenging higher education environment, and particularly the needs of our students,” said Suffolk Vice President of Communications Greg Gatlin. “No one segment of our staff community was targeted, and the 30 layoffs were made at various levels of the organization across most units, and included management and support staff.”

Some staff members have felt like their voices are not being heard and valued as decisions are being made at an administrative level. 

“There’s just confusion and inconsistency and sadness around all of this,” said a long term staff member. “At the same time, there’s the other side of like, ‘now go build community, be happy and do all this extra work,’ because you have to keep the functions that people did that are gone now to make it seamless for the students, because we don’t want to put any of this difficulty on the students that already are trying to focus on their academics.”

A laid off staff member said that a lot of the work that will be lost in these layoffs are the day-to-day operations of offices and departments. And for some offices, the possibility of even being able to operate was a concern. 

“I worry about the amount of workload that will go to people who already have jobs,” the laid off staff member said. 

A long term staff member, whose job was not cut in the recent layoffs, said that over the past 10 years, there have been changes made that seem to foster less of a community culture on campus. 

With the loss of Suffolk buildings about 10 years ago, community assembly spaces went away with it. Town hall style conversations where everyone had a voice. This, coupled with the pandemic, has led to a lack of community within the Suffolk community, according to the staff member. 

Other decisions from the administration, such as changes to the Health Savings Plan and retirement funds also have sparked disconnect between staff and administration. 

“There was a lot of people that were older and working at Suffolk for 20, almost 30 years, that were let go. It’s having a morale issue. It’s really difficult to get things done when there’s a loss of institutional memory,” said the staff member. “It’s hard to onboard new people, it’s hard to manage departments with the skeleton staff and not knowing if your job is secure. It’s a difficult environment for staff.”

As the impacts of this wave of layoffs play out, one major question is left in the mind of a laid off staff member: “Who’s going to make sure we operate day-to-day?”