Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science will lay off 10 percent of its faculty and staff and cut executive salaries to reduce annual expenses by $10 million, the Los Angeles Times reported over the weekend.
Contributions to all employees’ retirement funds have also been suspended, the newspaper stated.
Dr. Susan Kelly, president and chief executive of the university in Willowbrook, south of Watts, told the Times, “We were in pretty good shape in June, but … our normal sources of funds dried up.”
Student enrollment at Drew — which has about 352 students, most of them Black and Hispanic — was not affected by the cuts, the newspaper stated.
Executive salaries will be reduced by 10 percent, and employees making over $42,000 a year will have their salaries slashed by 5 percent, according to the new plan. Travel and overtime also will be severely curtailed, officials said. The job and salary cuts are expected to take effect in early March.
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