Hundreds of Saint Louis University community members signed an online petition in hopes of reinstating social work professor Laurie Brockhaus, whose position is set to be terminated due to budget cuts.
Laurie Brockhaus joined SLU’s School of Social Work as a full-time faculty member at the start of the 2024-25 academic year. Before that, she served as an adjunct faculty member for the department since 2015 while also working as a clinical therapist in a private practice. She received her master’s degree in social work from SLU in 2008.
At the end of last academic year, Brockhaus was informed that she would be terminated at the conclusion of the 2025-26 school year due to budget cuts. She said she was not expecting her time at SLU as a full-time assistant professor to end so abruptly.
“I was surprised because I had just been hired. I loved using my teaching and clinical experience in the classroom and SLU has felt like a home,” Brockhaus said. “I have invested so much into SLU. I wish more time was considered, and that student voices were taken into consideration.”
The termination decision was made by the dean of the School of Social Work after SLU’s academic provost issued a directive for them to eliminate one non-tenure position. According to SLU’s administration, the action was necessary to help solve some of the university’s recent financial challenges. Brockahus said she was told she was chosen primarily because she was the most junior instructor in the department.
While the decision was made solely by SLU’s leadership, students, fellow professors and alumni are now organizing to protect Brockhaus’s job. As of Feb. 13, an online petition posted by sophomore social work student Annrose Pallitharayil has over 200 signatures and almost 40 comments expressing support for Brockhaus.
“Professor Brockhaus is not simply an instructor; she is a vital pillar of the social work program and a transformative educator whose impact on students extends far beyond the classroom. Her removal due to budget cuts will cause deep and lasting harm to the quality, continuity and integrity of our education,” Pallitharayil said in the petition.
The petition also lists the various ways students say they have benefited from working with Brockhaus, citing her clinical experience, her dedication to social justice and her willingness to mentor young students.
The petition also lists many of the problems that her termination will cause students, including increased class sizes, more reliance on adjuncts, losses in course continuity and a potential gap in course availability that other professors cannot fill.
Michael Mancini, a professor of social work and researcher of integrated behavioral health, said he first met Brockhaus when she was a student of his at SLU and that she will be greatly missed by many in their department.
“It pains me that she was selected to cut. She has a combination of practical experience and a care for social justice,” Mancini said. “She is collaborative and she supports and mentors students. She emanates a light that stood out even when she was a student … and we are not as good as a program without her.”
Mancini said Brockhaus’s termination and how the administration has handled it will have broader implications for the entire university community and ongoing budget challenges.
“The process went very quickly and with little transparency,” Mancini said. “While other cuts are likely happening too, the school still has a 2 billion dollar endowment. We are already drowning in terms of faculty numbers. And adjuncts alone can’t fulfill these positions.”
Mancini said he has hope in the students’ ability to effect change, and listed various ways students have made a meaningful impact on campus in the past.
“Students have so much power, and this process has been primarily led by them. In the past, students have been able to effect change, such as creating a DEI committee or organizing protests in the aftermath of controversial police killings,” Mancini said.
Despite her disappointment, Brockhaus said she sees a silver lining in the students’ efforts and that their campaign is an extension of their collaborative work in the classroom.
“I am so honored and proud of the advocacy of students, regardless of the outcome,” Brockahus said. “Planting seeds, though we might not see the fruits of our labors, does not excuse us from doing the work. The impact could be for generations to come, regardless of the outcome of the petition. They have planted the seeds of demonstrating that students do have a right.”
