The Daily Hampshire Gazette reported that in February, Smith officials announced their plans to lay off workers as a result of the College's weak financial state. The Smith administration is planning to cut 54 non-academic positions and to eliminate 25 faculty positions over the next five years. Smith's budget deficit next year will be $3 million and will grow to $7 million in the following year, according to the Gazette.
Recently, administrators at Smith proposed to close seven dining halls and cut 15 food service jobs. In a meeting with college officials two weeks ago, students expressed their opposition to the administration's decision. However, students were not satisfied with the administrators' responses. "I was a bit frustrated," Megan McRobert, one of the founders of SOS, told the Gazette. "The administrators would just talk and I never really felt like we got straight answers."
The Gazette reported that budget cuts at Smith will also impact financial aid. Student loans will be limited and work-study positions will be eliminated, primarily in the area of food-services. Since dining hall jobs require relatively little training, they are the easiest for students to perform and they are extremely desirable.
According to the Gazette, McRobert argued that because most financial aid packages require students to have a work-study job, cutting positions in a field where a number of students are employed will hurt financial aid recipients.
Students argued that Smith wastes money on items like shrimp served in the dining hall. However, according to the Gazette, shrimp is served infrequently. Sylvia Crafts, who works at the cafe in the Smith campus center, told the Gazette that shrimp is served no more than once or twice a semester.
Crafts said that of the 15 food service jobs which the administration decided to cut, only nine still need be eliminated because six positions are already vacant. Crafts is most concerned about plans to reduce employees' work hours to only 20 hours a week, because a 20-hour work week will not guarantee the workers health insurance benefits.
Some students have said that they would agree to give up their privileges if it will help the workers affected by the downsizing. "We are willing to sacrifice some of the cushier things to save jobs," said Ngozie Omebgu, another founding member of SOS.