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Eastern Michigan University Lays Off Most Of Its Full-Time Education Lecturers

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Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti is letting go most of its full-time lecturers in the College of Education, The Ann Arbor News reported.

Ten of 11 full-time lecturers in the college received layoff notices in December, a staff at the school told The Ann Arbor News. None of the college's 32 part-time lecturers have been issued layoff notices. The layoffs are effective Aug. 31.

Lecturers at the College of Education are tasked with placing, supervising and teaching student teachers enrolled in their program. They undergo a practicum at a Michigan high school.

"I'm concerned because the student teacher supervisors that place student teachers have relationships with the school districts. We have relationships with the teachers," Pam Olech, a lecturer who received a layoff notice in December, told The Ann Arbor News. "I'm nervous in terms of what the layoffs are going to do to the program and the student teachers."

Olech is a retired elementary school principal and certified teacher. She has worked at the university for 11 years, eight of them as a full-time lecturer.

In recent years, the undergraduate enrollment at the College of Education has decreased. In the 2008-09 academic year, undergraduates were enrolled in 40,089 credits hours, that shrunk to 30,743 credit hours in 2012-13, The Ann Arbor News reported citing the 2013 EMU data book.

Lecturers said the university is attributing the layoffs to budget woes and low enrollment.  They are trying to get answers from Susan Martin, the university's president.

"We're really hopeful that President Martin will hear about this and she will fix it. We've tried to have a conversation with the dean. We want President Martin to hear us," Sonya Alvarado, president of the EMU Federation of Teachers union, told the Ann Arbor News.

The layoff notice said laid-off employees can be recalled up to two years after termination, but Olech and Alvarado are not counting on it.

"They have mentioned that [recall] is a possibility, but there has not been any kind of guarantee," Alavarado said.

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