While the Air Force Academy sent a letter to incoming cadets early last week reassuring them of a quality education at the school, a definitive plan for layoffs among faculty and staff is still in the works.
Among the academy's civilians around 140 have resigned through the federal government's two deferred resignation programs, but the school is expected to lay off a significant number of additional civilians, according to internal communication and professors, who spoke on the condition of anonymity after attending presentations on cuts.
As a result of the cuts, the academy may need to eliminate majors and minors and cut the number of hours required to graduate, the internal communication said.
During a presentation on April 11, Superintendent Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind said that the Air Force is expected to cut 5,000 civilian positions in the 2025 must-pass legislation known as the National Defense Authorization Act, according to a detailed account of the event.
As part of that reduction in staff, Bauernfeind said he is preparing to cut 240 civilian positions and he did not know at the time if the 140 people who had resigned voluntarily would count toward the 240 positions that need to be eliminated. He said he had received conflicting guidance on whether the 140 positions would count. The workforce at the academy has not received an update about layoffs since the April 11 presentation, the professor said.
In a response to Gazette questions, the academy said it did not have final numbers on the number of civilians who have resigned or retired. But it continues to conduct prudent planning to retain accreditation and offer an array of majors.
The academy requires 125 credit-hours to graduate, and that could be reduced to 120 hours to earn a bachelor of Science degree, according to internal communication. The University of Colorado Boulder requires 128 credit-hours to graduate with a bachelor of science, according to its website.
"We remain committed to delivering world-class military training, academics and athletics, while sustaining and protecting our facilities and installation," the statement said.
Bauernfeind acknowledged the cuts to the civilian workforce would hurt. The school employed about 1,360 civilians in January. Civilians fill all kinds of roles across campus, such as in academic registration, communications, finance and child care, in addition to working as civilian faculty members.
He told the April 11 crowd that Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said he expects organizations will look like "Swiss cheese."
Bauernfeind noted that the academy has been over budget for its civilian employees for quite some time, and there is no longer an appetite from the Air Force to backfill that spending. It is also necessary to help with the national debt and funding the new F-47 program, the next-generation fighter aircraft, he said.
However, leaning on the national deficit felt "insincere" in part, because the academy is such a small portion of the overall budget and because civilian professors are cheaper to employ than uniformed instructors, a civilian professor said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Rand, a policy think tank, studied the issue in 2013 and found that civilians are less expensive, have more teaching experience, and bring more connections to the academic and research communities at the institution. At the time, the Air Force was struggling to meet its requirements with military faculty because it lacked officers with the necessary academic degrees and other positions were prioritized over the academy among other factors.
"The least costly military faculty member (captain/O-3 direct hire with no Air Force-funded degree) is more expensive than a civilian instructor, assistant professor, or associate professor," the Rand study found.
The school employs 491 faculty members, with 308 uniformed members and 183 civilians, The Gazette reported previously.
Previously, professors told The Gazette that the loss of highly experienced instructors with doctoral degrees could hurt the school's long-term accreditation, evaluated by outside groups. They also worried that cuts to instructors could lead to the top freshmen and sophomores leaving the school.
In a letter that was sent to admitted students, Bauernfeind assured students that the academy remains committed to a world-class education.
"Here, you will be immersed in a dynamic, accredited learning environment, with an array of classes and majors from which to choose," he wrote.
However, there is still some uncertainty surrounding the fall academic schedule as cuts loom, the professor said. The deadline for students to register for classes was also pushed back from April 11 to this Friday.
The civilian professor also said that over his 20 years, he has never seen such a letter go out to prospective students.
"It's not something you would expect to hear from a high-quality institution," he said.
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