Colleges must fund faculty learning amid scrutiny

After 2025 layoffs of more than 9,000 faculty and staff, US colleges face pressure to cut costs and improve outcomes. An argument in a new opinion piece says student success strategies won’t hold without deep, continuous investment in faculty professional deve

In 2025. colleges and universities across the United States laid off more than 9. 000 faculty and staff as enrollment shifted. budgets tightened. and public skepticism about the value of a college degree grew. By the time the scrutiny settled into everyday decision-making. many institutions were already looking for efficiencies—through new technologies and new infrastructure.

But the central question in this moment is simpler than the technology pitch: when institutions ask students to persist and complete, who gets the resources to improve how learning actually happens in the classroom?

The argument is made forcefully in a June 8, 2026 opinion piece by Janelle Jennings-Alexander of Complete College America. It points to decades of research saying instructors’ design. delivery. and ongoing support for learning is one of higher education’s most powerful levers for student persistence and completion. When faculty receive resources to innovate and carry out proven education reforms. students pass courses at higher rates and are more likely to persist into subsequent terms and complete college.

Yet professional development for faculty, the piece says, remains chronically underfunded. At many institutions, it is fragmented—optional workshops, one-off training sessions, or sporadic conference attendance. Teaching is often treated as something people either already know or don’t. even though it is. in the view of the author. an evolving practice that improves with sustained support.

The proposal is not vague encouragement. The piece argues that effective faculty development must be invested in deeply and consistently—regardless of an institution’s type or financial profile. It should engage faculty over time, build communities of practice, and explicitly link professional learning to student outcomes. It also frames teaching improvement as carrying the same seriousness as improving advising systems. redesigning math pathways. and initiating new technologies.

Over the past decade and a half. colleges have made student completion a central goal. with changes such as enhanced data systems. improved advising models. and expanded academic support structures. What has not received the same focus, the author says, is professional learning for faculty—and it should.

The piece presses for more than piecemeal efforts. It calls for comprehensive. evidence-based faculty development aligned with institutional goals. connecting teaching. assessment. technology. and student support strategies so progress in one area reinforces the rest. It also argues that professional learning needs to be embedded into institutional systems rather than left on the margins—where it is easier to ignore.

Two examples are used to show what that commitment can look like.

At Louisiana State University, Shreveport, improving teaching is described as core to student success rather than a tangential initiative. Faculty are said to receive high-impact professional learning aimed at strengthening instruction in gateway courses where students are most likely to struggle. The university’s approach. as outlined in the opinion. intentionally aligns faculty development with plans to strengthen student learning and improve success in the courses most critical to degree completion.

Texas Southern University, a public HBCU in Houston, is presented as another model. The piece says the university launched a center designed to support continuous improvement for its educators and treats faculty development as part of the university’s academic infrastructure. The center’s focus is described as helping instructors strengthen classroom practice in ways that directly influence student outcomes. and it also supports faculty who serve as teaching leaders within departments.

Still, the argument returns to a human constraint that cannot be solved with workshops. Faculty, it notes, cannot fully engage without psychological and career safety. The piece emphasizes that instructors need to believe leaders won’t penalize them for trying something new and missing the mark. and they need encouragement to keep trying. It calls for institutions and policymakers to build cultures where leaders and faculty expect—rather than merely tolerate—learning through experimentation.

That expectation, the piece says, also intersects with well-being. Research cited in the opinion claims that more than half of college faculty and staff have considered quitting due to burnout. increased workloads. and stress. If schools invest in professional learning that acknowledges the mental labor of teaching and allows for reflection. the author argues. they are not only supporting faculty but also protecting the long-term capacity of institutions.

In the opinion’s concluding frame. faculty development is not one strategy among many to be dusted off when budgets allow. It is cast as a requirement for sustaining gains in college completion. The author says colleges cannot claim to value teaching while expecting faculty to improve their craft on their own time with minimal support.

Janelle Jennings-Alexander, the author of the piece, is strategy director for Complete College America, described as a national advocate for increasing college completion rates and closing institutional performance gaps.

The opinion also notes that the story about faculty professional development was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.

faculty professional development college completion higher education gateway courses course redesign student success burnout Texas Southern University Louisiana State University Shreveport Complete College America HBCU