President Tom Gamble, Ph.D., announced to the university Thursday that 14 administrators and staff will be laid off from their positions here, and six more will have their positions reduced from full time to part time.

The steps are part of cost-cutting efforts for the current academic year. No faculty were laid off and no academic programs were eliminated.

The letter detailed an university-wide initiative to “realign our resources by consolidating work, eliminating positions in our university workforce and implementing other budgetary adjustments.”

The layoffs are one part of the initiative. University payments into the employee pension program “will be suspended through May 2015,” and pay cuts for the more highly paid members of the president’s staff have begun. Six positions that had been open will remain open.

The cuts will enable the university to focus its resources towards a number of programs.

According to the letter Gamble sent to the university community, Mercyhurst is looking “toward realigning resources to permit a significant strengthening of our computer science program and investments in the bio-medical sciences as well as our new majors in public health, big-data analytics, convergent media, digital humanities and physician assistant studies,” as well as other programs not mentioned within the letter.

Enrollment at Mercyhurst the past two years is lower than previous years, placing a crunch on its revenues.

For more information on this matter, visit the Employees page on the MyMercyhurst Portal.