A spokesperson for Meredith confirmed that the college implemented budget reductions on Tuesday that included "employee realignment as part of balancing the budget for 2025-26."
The workplace reductions amount to approximately 6% of Meredith's total employees and "were necessary to align staffing levels with the College's current and future operational needs."
About 25 employees at the all-women's college were affected. After the reductions, Meredith has approximately 500 employees. None of the college's roughly 150 full-time faculty members were laid off.
No departments were eliminated, the spokesperson said, and reductions were made across different campus departments.
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Budget adjustment decisions were focused on protecting programs and services essential to fulfilling Meredith's mission, the spokesperson said.
"Meredith College is a financially strong institution. Like most colleges and universities in the nation, Meredith is facing financial pressures as a result of economic and demographic shifts," the college said in a statement. "Meredith values and cares about our colleagues affected by today's employee realignment. These strategic budget reductions were necessary and proactive steps in preserving Meredith's long-term financial strength and helping it grow and thrive for the future. When making budget adjustments, Meredith leaders focused on protecting programs and services essential to fulfilling its mission. These difficult decisions were made for the good of the College as a whole."
On Tuesday, ABC11 spoke with a Meredith College alumna dismayed by the news of the cuts. For Kat Bonner, the tight-knit community at Meredith was a big part of her decision to go there.
"I would not be who I am today if it was not for Meredith College," she said on Tuesday evening.
The Greenville native said that was never more apparent than after her mother died just after they toured the college together in the Spring of 2013. Bonner said upon hearing the news, school administrators sent her a sympathy card before she had even committed to going there.
"I was like, 'What did I do to deserve this?' Like, something so amazing. You're not going to get that at a large school," Bonner said.
Bonner called Tuesday's news that the school had made significant cuts a gut punch. Though a spokesperson said those layoffs weren't tied to federal funding cuts, they acknowledged that "the current national landscape for higher education was a factor." That includes enrollment challenges caused by shifting demographics nationally: what boils down to fewer college-aged applicants overall. It's an issue that UNC System President Peter Hans addressed in 2022.
"Simply put, the pool of traditional college students in the state isn't getting any deeper anytime soon, and that has significant impacts on our universities," Hans said.
Hans called that phenomenon the "demographic cliff". While enrollment is up this year throughout the UNC System, it's a challenge that he said will require new solutions.
"We're going to need to sharpen our value proposition and persuade an increasingly skeptical public that we can deliver on our core promise of a better life," Hans said.
Meredith College was chartered in 1891 as an independent women's college. It was named for education advocate Thomas Meredith in 1909.