A new update - almost 40 folks with lose jobs at UMD - welcome to the new economy of slow recovery and scarce jobs - it's hard and it will get even more hard - UMD needs to save money hence the cuts - here is the source on the job cuts:
The 38 faculty members working on short-term contracts that won’t be renewed equal 16 full-time employees. Some are actually still employed but with smaller workloads, but some positions were eliminated altogether. That, combined with a handful of retirements and four faculty positions held open, make up $2 million in cuts to the budgets of the School of Fine Arts, the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Education and Human Service Professions. Those schools were chosen because they had the greatest decline in enrollment or higher proportions of courses with low enrollments.
Link:
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/education/4142302-umd-announces-layoffs-reduce-budget-deficit