Anxiety at Hiram

Last December, Hiram College (OH) wrote to alumni to assure them that an ongoing academic redesign of the 168-year-old liberal arts college, led by President Lori Varlotta, would proceed in an orderly fashion: “Like just about every process Varlotta launches, this one will be inclusive, data-driven, and transparent,” the college said in a message on its website.  But five months later, a group of faculty and students at the northeastern Ohio college say the institution has kept them in the dark about one key aspect: to what extent the redesign will shrink professors' ranks.