Morehouse cuts staff; Clark Atlanta reorganizes after cuts

On the heels of its announcement last week that it was restructuring its curriculum and letting 70 faculty members go, Clark Atlanta University on Sunday said all physical education classes had been canceled for the semester.

The cancellations were announced in a letter to students from the university’s academic affairs office.

John Spink / jspink@ajc.com

Classes are canceled at Clark Atlanta on Monday as the school reorganizes classes after staff cuts.

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The letter also stated that class schedule changes in the School of Arts and Sciences “will be made available to you shortly,” but that class schedules in the schools of Education, Business and Social Work would remain unchanged.

Clark Atlanta isn’t the only higher educational insitution feeling the sting of a foundering economy.

On Sunday, Morehouse College officials confirmed that 25 adjunct professors, about one-third of the part-time instructors employed there, did not have their contracts renewed for the spring semester. Full-time Morehouse faculty and staff were not affected by the move, officials said.

On Friday, Clark Atlanta president Carlton E. Brown announced that an “enrollment emergency” exacerbated by current economic conditions required 100 faculty and staff members to be laid off. Monday classes were canceled as the administration prepared to unveil a revised class schedule.

Having the day off didn’t give any joy to some students.

“I’m very concerned,” said Carlos Leavitt, 24. “I’m worried Clark Atlanta is going to implode.”

A graduate student who is finishing his master’s thesis in American history, Leavitt was one of more than a half-dozen students and university employees interviewed on campus Sunday.

Most said they understood that layoffs probably couldn’t been avoided because of the current economic downturn. But that didn’t stop them from worrying.

“I don’t want to lose any of my professors,” said 19-year-old sophomore Mychela Predium. “I don’t want anything changing.”

Ernest Moore, the university’s director of student housing and judicial affairs, called the staff reductions “a necessary action to address some old issues.

“It’s something that schools across the country are dealing with,” Moore said. “It’s regrettable, but necessary.”