Faculty in the Graduate School of Education and Human Development fear the plan officials announced last month to combat declining enrollment by considering layoffs, consolidating classes and cutting programs lacked faculty consultation and could undermine the school’s mission.
Following former Provost Chris Bracey’s June 23 announcement that GSEHD’s non-tenure faculty and staff could face “potential changes” to their job statuses and classes may be consolidated as part of the University’s “organizational recommendations” to tackle declining enrollment, faculty were unsettled by unclear details and insufficient communication from officials. They fear layoffs will target personnel essential to the school’s functioning, while larger class sizes and fewer courses could diminish its prestige.
University spokesperson Shannon McClendon said declining enrollment and changes to the higher education landscape led to officials’ decision. She said the University and GSEHD are working to create “sustainable, long-term solutions.”
Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill, which President Donald Trump signed into law on July 4, will eliminate the Graduate PLUS loan program, which permits students to borrow up to the cost of their graduate school program, in July 2026 and cap graduate students’ borrowing at $20,500 a year, with a $100,000 lifetime limit.
“This situation is not unique,” McClendon said. “Like so many schools of education nationwide, GSEHD has faced ongoing challenges driven by shifts in interest and overall volatility in higher education.”
GSEHD has been dealing with financial and enrollment issues for years, which have impeded its ability to expand financial aid opportunities, build new facilities and increase salaries. Officials have tried to combat those issues with initiatives like the creation of a new strategic plan in 2014 focused on attracting applicants.
Still, GSEHD’s enrollment has declined by roughly 39 percent since 2014, dropping from 1,479 to 958 in 2024 according to enrollment data.
Bracey’s message preceded officials’ announcement last week that the University is implementing a hiring freeze and will likely lay off staff and faculty as they cut administrative and academic budgets for fiscal year 2026. GW announced in April it would cut the FY2026 budget by three percent to combat a yearslong structural deficit and Trump’s attacks on higher education.
Faculty members criticized officials’ failure to communicate how many faculty members received notices and what programs and classes they are considering consolidating or shuttering.
Julia Storberg-Walker, an associate professor of human and organizational learning, said the announcement hit the GSEHD community on a “psychological” level as students began texting her after the announcement, worried their programs might be in jeopardy.
“I’ve already had students in panic texting me,” Storberg-Walker said. “‘Is our program going to go away?’ ‘Can I still get my degree?’ And there hasn’t been a lot of consistent communication with data and information to help.”
Storberg-Walker also said larger class sizes could “erode” GSEHD’s reputation. She said larger classes would mean she would not be able to assign as many writing assignments due to the increased workload of having to grade them, which would give students less practice and feedback on a skill “critical” for them to develop.
She said larger class sizes would also make it harder for students to gather in small groups and share their work with their peers.
“I think that the price point at GW for their graduate school, graduate education, demands a certain quality of education,” Storberg-Walker said.
Shaista Khilji, the department chair of human and organizational learning, said the morale of the school is at the “lowest” she has seen, not only because of the possibility of layoffs, but how the University delivered this news.
She said by releasing this news in the summer — when GSEHD lacks a community space — faculty are forced to “make sense” of the news in their smaller personal circles rather than discussing their worries with the school at large. She also said that the lack of transparency about how many faculty were notified and the criteria used for their selection has further lowered morale.
Around 17 or 18 faculty members received a notification, which is almost a third of GSEHD’s faculty, Assistant Professor of Higher Education Administration Dwayne Wright said.
“We are on the verge of losing a third of the faculty who have dedicated themselves to the growth of the GW student body and published important scholarships,” Khilji said in an email. “Dark clouds of uncertainty and anxiety loom large.”
Bracey’s statement also said that officials will work with GSEHD on the “careful implementation” of initiatives that could include combining courses and changing the curriculum to create larger class sizes and reorganizing administrative duties and responsibilities. The statement said the University has not yet ruled out cutting programs at GSEHD as they continue to evaluate enrollments.
Former GSEHD Dean Michael Feuer and Interim Dean Lionel Howard said in an email to faculty on June 23 that some faculty may have received a notification regarding “changes to their employment status.” Feuer and Howard wrote that the notification was meant to be a “warning” and not a “final determination” to faculty.
The Hatchet obtained an email sent to a GSEHD professor by Howard on June 18 where he said the Provost’s office has compiled a list of “contract faculty” who could have received an email on June 30, informing them they will be laid off after the current academic year.
“There is absolutely no reflection on your performance or value to the community, but rather the unfortunate reality of GSEHD’s finances,” Howard said in the email.
A University spokesperson said earlier this month that number of non-tenured faculty members were informed their contracts may not be renewed at the end of the next academic year, as required by the Faculty Code, depending on whether enrollment increases and the school’s long-term sustainability improves.
Brian Casemore, an associate professor of curriculum and pedagogy, said the news was devastating to him, as consolidated classes and the targeting of “essential” faculty members undermine GSEHD’s mission by hindering their ability to serve diverse students and train educational leaders.
Casemore said those who received the notifications teach as many as 75 courses, serve as primary advisors to master’s and doctoral students and serve in administrative roles at the school.
“The school will suffer greatly the loss of their expertise, research, teaching, and collegiality,” Casemore said in an email.
Casemore said he has been intent on figuring out how the decision to make these cuts was reached. He said Bracey described the process as “collaborative,” but there has been no transparency or decision-making with GSEHD faculty.
“GSEHD faculty remain in the dark about how these dramatic and severe cuts to the faculty were deliberated and coordinated,” Casemore said. “I have heard no evidence of faculty involvement in shared governance toward these truly damaging ends.”
Wright said the news was “shocking,” but also seemed “inevitable,” as enrollments declined.
Wright said if the University acts on their warnings, which were sent out to nearly one third of GSEHD’s faculty, it would be similar to shutting down the school entirely because it would change the nature of the school.
“If the letters are effectuated, it will mean shutting down the school without the University administration having to actually take the responsibility for shutting down the school,” Wright said in an email.
Wright also said there is a “lost interest” towards educators in the United States, with fewer students wanting to enter the field of education over the past few decades. Wright said this disinterest has led to lower matriculation rates in education programs nationwide, further contributing to GSEHD’s enrollment issues. Enrollment in undergraduate education programs across the country has declined by over 16 percent from 107,235 graduates in 2005 to 89,410 in 2022, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Wright also said educators are often underpaid, citing GSEHD’s status as the lowest-paid faculty on average at the University for the past four consecutive years.
GSEHD professors earned $142,784 on average during the 2023-24 academic year, over $50,000 lower than the University-wide average, according to the University’s latest annual core indicator report. Assistant professors at GSEHD earned $93,186 on average during the 2023-24 academic year, over $16,000 less than the University’s average, according to the report.
“I think, over the last decade, educators have been disrespected,” Wright said. “They’ve been underpaid. The value of an educator has been depleted.”
Linda McCullough, an associate clinical professor of counseling and human development, said all potential layoff notifications were issued to faculty in the school’s education programs, while no one from the counseling division was considered.
She said the difference stems from enrollment trends as the education division has faced declining numbers, whereas counseling has experienced steady growth in recent years.
In 2023, there were 64 students enrolled at counseling programs at GSEHD, as compared to 72 in 2018 — an over 16 percent decrease. There were 370 education students enrolled at GSEHD in 2023, compared to 592 in 2018, an over 37 percent decrease, according to the degrees and majors dashboard.
“We are not seeing the drop in interest in our programs at all,” McCullough said. “We have tons of applicants for our counseling programs.”
