WASHINGTON - The University of the District of Columbia is in serious
financial trouble, and school leaders want D.C. taxpayers to help pay
off faculty and staff they intend to fire.
To help get the university back on track, administrators are asking D.C.
taxpayers for $4 million to cover union-mandated severance packages for
faculty who are laid off.
D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray says he is reluctant to give the university the funds and wants "to see a lot more" from the school.
"We really got to be able to drill down much more specificity around not
only what those dollars would be used for, but what is the vision going
forward for the university," he says.
UDC's cost-cutting measures include eliminating seven departments and
two dozen majors. Thirty positions have already been cut, and the
institution plans to lay of 25 more faculty members and staff.
There have also been talks of closing some of the satellite campuses
around the city and relocating them to the main Van Ness campus in upper
Northwest D.C.
Gray says he is opposed to that idea, but wants to work with the university to find a solution.
"We're very concerned about the community college at this stage and where this is going," he says.
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