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Penn State Altoona on Monday rebutted three assertions in a Saturday-Sunday Mirror story on the number of potential layoffs, programs affected and not informing students about potential changes at the local campus due to universitywide budget cuts.
The assertions were made to the Mirror by several anonymous callers.
The Mirror forwarded those assertions in an email seeking comment from a university spokesman before writing the story Friday, but the spokesman declined at the time to rebut them specifically.
"The anonymous source quoted in the article indicated that the college's plan included 'hundreds of permanent layoffs,' which, if true, would involve letting go more than half of our full-time employees," wrote a different campus spokesman, Jonathan O'Harrow, in an email Monday. "The statement is simply not true."
The college "must be properly staffed to continue to nurture student success and our goal is to address our financial challenge with as minimal impact to our employees as possible," O'Harrow added.
There are currently about 370 employees at Penn State Altoona, O'Harrow wrote.
"The anonymous source also stated that the cuts will 'almost exclusively affect non-STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) departments,' which is also not true," O'Harrow wrote. "In fact, most of our highest-enrolled degree programs are non-STEM, including accounting, business, education, kinesiology and nursing."
"Finally, the anonymous source implies that, at a recent meeting with faculty and staff, campus leadership said that students 'are not to be involved in discussions, so they're less likely to protest and walk out,'" O'Harrow wrote. "The topic of discussions with students did not come up during the meeting, and employees were not forbidden or discouraged from engaging with students on the topic."
The Mirror on Friday left messages or actually spoke to 14 Penn State employees, including O'Harrow and Wyatt Dubois, the spokesman who provided the university statement used in the weekend story.
Penn State Altoona Chancellor Lori Bechtel-Wherry emailed a memo to all faculty, staff, maintenance and operations employees Monday reiterating O'Harrow's assertions to the Mirror about the claims of the anonymous caller and forwarded a copy of that memo to the Mirror.
Bechtel-Wherry also made some more general points in the memo.
"The planning process for the upcoming budget reductions that are taking place across our university is ongoing and fluid," the chancellor wrote. "Our plans adapt and change as new details and information are gathered and assessed."
The Mirror reported $4.7 million in cuts need to be made, and Penn State Altoona is not disputing that figure.
Bechtel-Wherry, who is retiring at year's end, urged employees "to avoid broad speculation, as it often leads to the spread of rumors and misinformation."
Employees with questions or concerns should feel free to share them with her or their supervisors, she wrote, adding, "I have great faith in our college community. We will work on this together, and we will get through this."
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.