Twelve faculty and 16 staff positions have been eliminated due to financial considerations, Vice President of Human Resources Deb Ayres announced in an email to staff and faculty on Friday, May 22.

Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, along with reorganization and “changing institutional priorities based on market demands,” such positions had to be terminated, according to the email.

“The university is, unfortunately, at a point where these staffing changes are unavoidable,” Ayres wrote in the email.

In light of the layoffs, students created an event on Facebook to promote the protest “Lions against layoffs” on the sidewalks outside of Lindenwood University on Wednesday, May 27.

“We will show our support for the professors that have supported us for years,” Trisha Tamblyn, a music major at Lindenwood, wrote on the event details.

Other universities in the St. Louis area, like Saint Louis University and Washington University, have announced budget cuts and staff and faculty layoffs in the past month.

This is a developing story and will be updated with more information.