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A total of 111 employees will be laid off as a result of Wheelock College’s merger into Boston University -- 72 staff members and 39 faculty members.
The employees will lose their jobs after the merger becomes official June 1, The Boston Globe reported last week. The layoffs represent a majority of Wheelock employees, as Boston University offered positions to 93 of the college’s employees.
About a third of those Wheelock employees being offered jobs are tenured faculty members. Those losing their jobs include both full-time and part-time faculty members. But all Wheelock tenured faculty members are being offered positions, according to a release from BU.
“We have been anticipating this point even before the merger was announced,” David Chard, Wheelock’s president, said in a statement. “Losing talented staff and faculty is very difficult, particularly in a tight-knit, mission-driven community like Wheelock. However, as a result of this merger, Boston University has offered us a unique opportunity to retain the academic knowledge and expertise of Wheelock’s tenured faculty and the capacity of many of our high-quality staff members that will ensure the success of the new Wheelock College of Education and Human Development.”
That’s the name of the new college to be created under a merger agreement announced in October that will have Wheelock’s School of Education, Child Life and Family Studies merging with BU’s School of Education. The announcement came several months after BU and Wheelock first revealed former merger discussions in August. Wheelock was facing financial and enrollment challenges.
Employees losing their jobs will receive severance packages and outplacement services, said Diane Tucker, Boston University’s vice president for human resources.
“This is the very difficult and painful part of the merger,” she said in a statement. “It’s hard for people to lose jobs through no fault of their own. We are committed to helping impacted employees with their job search.”
