Reduced Faculty

The number of faculty Bryn Mawr employs will be reduced if the proposal passes, though all the cuts will occur through "normal attrition," Myers said. No faculty will be fired, but some posts will not be refilled when the people who now hold them leave or retire, she explained.

Faculty response to the proposals varies, Posner said. "The people who aren't upset are those who've been in the college for forty years and feel that the change is not significant."

She said faculty who have been in the school for less time seem more affected by the new plan.

"I think they don't understand the mission and nature of the college and that this is the way it works here," she said. "But I think they're calming down a little."

Bryn Mawr has a "problem which is typical of many smaller schools, which is that the need to support new programs and maintain old ones outpaces sources of income," Spain said.

She added that few schools can meet the standards of financial equilibrium set by Cambridge Associates, which include a balanced budget, and equal annual growth rate for income and expenditures.

Said Spain: "Bryn Mawr has always had a hard time looking financially healthy."