ST. LOUIS — St. Louis University has eliminated more than 20 staff positions and is freezing 130 vacancies in a cost-saving measure announced in an email Friday to students and staff.
SLU President Fred Pestello did not provide an exact number of layoffs. The student newspaper, , reported Friday that the total was 23. The layoffs do not include faculty, but 30 of the unfilled positions are teaching jobs, Pestello’s email said.
Pestello earlier this month in a post on the university’s website. To balance the budget, Pestello wrote, the university would need to reduce expenses by about 4%.
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“The decision to part with valued employees is a painful one,†he wrote. “We worked in numerous ways to avoid taking this step.â€
Colleges across the country have been reckoning in recent years with escalating costs and a dwindling student population. Academic majors are being trimmed, international students wooed and, in some cases, campuses are being shuttered entirely. Fontbonne University in Clayton will close next year. Lindenwood University in St. Charles laid off staff in June, months after slashing 10 athletic programs. And Webster University in Webster Groves saw revenue plummet over the past decade as it lost a third of its enrollment.
But SLU, a private Jesuit institution in midtown, enjoys a stronger base — with an endowment of about $1.8 billion and a student body last year that topped 15,000.
A drop in international students, who typically pay close to sticker price on tuition, hurt the university this fall, Pestello said. He attributed the decline to fewer visas issued by certain U.S. consulates abroad. SLU’s tuition surpassed $53,000 last school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, but the average student paid less than half that.
The University News reported that the 2025 fiscal year budget includes $20 million in expense reductions; an additional $40 million will be wrung out over the next two fiscal years.
This month’s cuts have shrunk the university’s staff by about 1%, but more losses are likely over the next couple of years, Pestello said in his post.
“Ultimately, we will become an organization with fewer faculty and staff,†he said. “We will need to focus our efforts differently, shifting our work to support areas of highest priority.â€
Pestello, who has led the university since 2014, announced in March that he will resign at the end of this academic year.