Updated: May 16, 2016 at 11:37 p.m.
Ten full-time faculty members at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design will not return to the University next academic year, a University spokeswoman confirmed Monday.
Nine faculty members with contracts expiring May 30 will return, University spokeswoman Kurie Fitzgerald said.
“Next academic year, there will be just over 50 full-time faculty members teaching across the disciplines of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design,” Fitzgerald said in an email.
Sanjit Sethi, the director of the Corcoran School, sent an email to students Monday telling them that “all full-time faculty have been notified of their contract status” after considering the school’s current and projected enrollment, the operating budget, merging the Corcoran’s programs with the arts programs at GW and feedback from the National Association of Schools of Art and Design.
“The review process was undertaken with a great deal of care, and I considered several factors,” Sethi said in the email.
He said in the email that faculty whose contracts were not renewed will receive one year of severance payment and are being recommended for emeritus status at GW.
Last month, GW had not yet renewed contracts for any Corcoran faculty members for next academic year. At the time, faculty members said they would know about the status of their contracts at the end of May.
Students and remaining faculty members said several full-time photography professors lost their jobs, the Washingtonian reported.
Corcoran’s art programs will officially merge with the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences by the end of next fiscal year, Sethi said earlier this year. When GW absorbed the Corcoran in 2014, officials laid off 150 part-time faculty and staff. All full-time faculty were then given one-year contracts.
