Kent State University has had to make cuts to its budget nearly every year since 2017, said President Todd Diacon.
A combination of factors – reduced state support, declining student enrollment and inflation – have led Kent State and other universities to cut expenses. However, this is the first time the university has had to discuss laying off employees. Up to 45 people could lose their jobs.
“We’ve been cutting our expenses essentially every year since 2017,” Diacon said in his most recent video, Talking with Todd. “After 10 years of those kinds of expense reductions, this is really the first time that we have to look at eliminating occupied positions.”
Diacon added that he wasn’t sure that the number of employees receiving layoff notices would be 45. Most of those employees should receive 90 days of continued pay as part of the staff reduction.
“I don’t know that it will get to 45,” he said. “We still have to figure that out but I think the upper end will be 45.” A reduction of 45 staff is about 1.3 percent of the workforce at Kent State, Diacon added.
According to the university, there were around 28,628 undergraduate students enrolled in its eight-campus system in fall 2025. There are more than 2,300 full-time and part-time faculty.
“We’re going to end this fiscal year with a very slight fund balance,” Diacon said. He added that the university will end this fiscal year with $1.5 million in the black, out of a $720 million budget.
However, this “doesn’t meet my goal of finishing the year with a 1% surplus or positive fund balance,” Diacon added. His goal is to have around $7 million as a surplus. As a result, the university is looking to cut about $18 million.
“I just would like to not to cut it so close at the end of the year because you never know what sort of unexpected expenses might happen at the last minute,” Diacon said.
Nationwide, Kent State is not the only university facing cuts, Diacon said:
“Our challenges are not bigger than the other challenges at the other Ohio public universities by any measure,” Diacon said in addressing the university’s finances. “When I say we have a balanced budget, I mean we don’t spend more than we bring in in revenue. We don’t balance the budget with savings or reserves.”
University enrollment has also taken a hit due to the reduction of student visas, Diacon said. The number of visas issued by the U.S. State Department to international students looking to study in the country declined 35% in the past year. Student visas from India declined by 66% this past year. In addition, he added that the population of Northeast Ohio is declining. While enrollment at Kent main campus has “been fairly steady,” there has been a decline in enrollment in regional campuses.
Diacon said he spent three to six weeks working with the university’s vice presidents on how to reduce expenditures by between 5 and 10%. He said that his office budget will be reduced by 10% in the coming year. Three or four vice presidencies also will see a 10% reduction; he did not specify which departments in his video comments. Diacon added that “a couple of vice presidencies will reduce around the 8% range” and Academic Affairs will see its budget reduced by 3.7%
Emily Vincent, the director of University Media Relations, said she wasn’t sure if the cuts would only impact Kent State’s main campus or the branch campuses as well.
Details are expected to be given to Kent State University’s board of trustees at their May 20 meeting. For details on the board meetings, visit kent.edu/bot/meetings online.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Kent State might lay off 45 employees, for first layoffs in years
Reporting by April Helms, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
