At Emerson College in Boston, anxiety and uncertainty linger over many professors and staff. Some are blaming a lack of transparency and absent leadership.
The college president’s office announced multiple layoffs to help the school deal with apparent enrollment declines and budget shortcomings. But faculty told GBH News that the messaging lacked detail, leaving them in the dark about how many jobs are at risk or when the cuts would stop. The stressful situation left some professors and staff concerned that any day they walked through the door could be their last.
“The administration lacks the trust from many of the faculty members,” said journalism professor Doug Struck, treasurer of the union representing full-time faculty. “We have gotten no solid information about the enrollment drops. We’ve gotten no solid information about the budget shortfall.”
That lack of transparency, combined with declining enrollment and financial strain, has created what professors describe as a climate of dread. Many are openly questioning President Jay Bernhardt’s competence and his leadership style.
Last year, faced with an enrollment drop, the college slashed $10 million from its budget and laid off staff. Last month, Bernhardt said the school needed to cut its budget by another 5%, but he did not disclose dollar amounts. Emerson’s most recent financial statement available publicly is from July 2024, and does not offer further insight into recent decisions.
The college said to help close the shortfall, administrators will forgo a cost-of-living increase but the college would also need to cut staff. Those layoffs were stretched across the past two weeks. On Monday, professors learned at least three mid-level managers were laid off or left voluntarily. The college also offered a voluntary retirement program for faculty. On Tuesday, Emerson let the campus community know this current round of layoffs was complete.
“President Bernhardt remains confident in Emerson’s future,” said spokesperson Kelly Devers-Franklin in an emailed statement. “He recognizes the leadership’s work during a challenging period for higher education to keep the College vibrant, innovative, and sustainable.”
Professors agree budget cuts are inevitable, especially as international enrollment is under threat this fall. Other universities facing financial and enrollment headwinds have also trimmed their staff lists, including Brown University, Boston University and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Clark University plans to cut more than a quarter of its faculty in the coming years as it retools its academic offerings. But many Emerson faculty say the college’s handling of layoffs has been unnecessarily cruel and damaged morale.
Professors tell GBH News that Bernhardt, who declined several requests to be interviewed for this story, has grown increasingly isolated and distant. They say he was accompanied by a security guard to commencement in May and the college has restricted access to his office, locking the elevator and adding a new secured door.
Devers-Franklin said these security measures have become “the norm” in higher education, and that even with these practices in place, Bernhardt frequently meets with faculty and staff.
“President Bernhardt remains confident in Emerson’s future.”Kelly Devers-Franklin, spokesperson
Still, some longtime faculty say Bernhardt isn’t doing enough to be part of the campus community.
Journalism professor Paul Niwa compared Bernhardt to Howard Hughes, the reclusive business magnate who holed up in a Las Vegas penthouse. “He is getting a very narrow sense of what the college is,” Niwa said. “He’s not interacting with our students. They’re the core business, right?”
Niwa and others say Bernhardt appears fearful of students and faculty.
“You don’t need those kinds of security measures if you have established some sort of a relationship and trust with the people you’re working with,” said Struck. “You earn leadership status. You don’t declare it.”
Others are giving Bernhardt the benefit of the doubt. John Rodzvilla, who teaches publishing at Emerson and is president of the union representing the school’s full-time faculty, said he does not personally envy college presidents navigating this particular political, social and financial moment.
“It’s COVID and then the protests and then Trump,” Rodzvilla said, ticking off a few of the challenges facing colleges over the past couple years. “It’s just all three of those happening so quickly that it makes sense why there’s a lot of frustration. It makes sense there’s a lot of fear and a lot of anger.”
He said Emerson and other colleges haven’t had a chance to regain their footing.
“We’re just in extraordinary times,” he said. “It’s so chaotic that I don’t know how as a leader you can follow your standard leadership practices.”
Quietly, some faculty members on campus think Emerson, as an institution, should lay low and avoid the spotlight as the Trump administration continues its attacks on higher education.
This is not the first sign of conflict between Emerson faculty and Bernhardt. In 2024, after Bernhardt called on police to break up campus protests, students and some faculty members expressed their disapproval by shouting during his inauguration and voting to censure him over his handling of the issue. Looking back, professors say they didn’t demand his resignation simply because they were weary of interim leadership; it had taken two years to find a full-time president after Lee Pelton announced he was stepping down.
Since the 2024 faculty censure vote, Bernhardt has enforced a policy of “institutional neutrality” on hot-button issues and instituted strict protest rules that critics argue silence students on moral questions. Though many other colleges have taken similar approaches, some professors question whether it was the right choice for Emerson.
“This used to be a liberal college that attracted students who were independent and used to speaking out,” Struck said. “[Bernhardt] engaged in some of the most massive arrests of students in the history of the school. The alienation is not just a matter of form. It’s a matter of function.”
“He’s not, to be honest with you, the man who ought to be leading this liberal arts college,” he added.
Some professors believe Bernhardt is preemptively bending to the Trump administration’s push to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and programs. Emerson is among those schools under federal investigation for mishandling claims of antisemitism during protests about the Israel-Hamas war.
In an email to the campus community last week, Bernhardt announced sweeping reorganizations, including recasting its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office as a new Division of Community, Culture & Belonging.
Even as other schools dial back DEI and change certain language on their websites, the recent reorganization confused and alarmed some at Emerson.
“I’m not confident he’d have my back if right-wing extremists attacked me,” said one longtime professor, who did not want to be identified for fear of being targeted. “It sends a terrible signal to Black and brown students and faculty.”
“He is getting a very narrow sense of what the college is. He’s not interacting with our students.”Paul Niwa, journalism professor at Emerson
Niwa worries that Emerson’s hard-earned culture is slipping away. He said Emerson used to be a place that welcomed everyone, but the school now appears to be “backsliding” on that front, and faculty are worn out.
Besides being an Emerson employee for the past 25 years, Niwa used to donate annually to support Emerson’s journalism department directly and general fund campaigns. But he admitted he stopped recently because he feels a weaker connection to the college.
In one of his latest campus-wide emails, Bernhardt addressed burnout and disengagement. He tried to rally staff, insisting Emerson’s “long-standing history as a champion of inclusion will continue” and calling on faculty to “stay fully engaged.”
But already reeling from recent reductions, professors say trust in leadership and engagement with its vision on the ground floor are in short supply.
