Nova Southeastern University, one of Broward County’s biggest employers, is not immune to layoffs.
But a university official says the 101 people laid off on Friday were good employees who lost their jobs due to something beyond their control: Declining enrollment.
Many did not see it coming and were stunned by the news.
Most were administrative staffers and middle managers at the private university. None were represented by a union.
Details about how much money the layoffs were saving the university were not available on Sunday.
“These were in many cases friends, people we have known for years,” university spokesman Brandon L. Hensler said Sunday. “It was a business decision, not a personal decision. And it was something we had to do to make sure we are sustainable moving forward. This community relies on us to be here today and tomorrow. And this will make sure we are.”
The university, with a sprawling campus in the heart of Davie, now has 22,000 students.
That’s a far cry from 2011, when it boasted a robust student population of 29,000.
In recent years, Nova has struggled with declining enrollment in the colleges of business, education and law, Hensler said.
“We’ve worked very hard over the past few years to reduce our expenditures where we can to avoid this kind of downsizing,” he said. “The university is still doing very well. But the time came that we had to look at personnel.”
Before Friday, Nova employed a total of 5,000 people, including part-timers.
“We compared our university to other universities around the country,” Hensler said. “And we had a lot more staff.”
Executive management determined which employees should be let go.
Those employees got the news on Friday.
“We had one-on-one meetings,” Hensler said. “We treated people humanely. These weren’t performance based. It was right sizing.”
Each employee received a severance package and will also get help in finding a new job.
Details about the severance packages were not available on Sunday.
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4554. Find her on Twitter @Susannah_Bryan.