College's parent, ITT, stays mum on layoffs

NASHUA – The new owners of Daniel Webster College have little to say about the 23 employees laid off at the school this week.

“We never comment on personnel actions,” said Glenn Tanner, a representative for ITT Tech, the for-profit higher education company based out of Carmel, Ind.

Tanner declined to discuss any of the ongoing issues regarding the takeover and any future plans ITT has for Daniel Webster.

The layoffs came less than a month after the sale of Daniel Webster College to ITT Tech, which became official July 1. So far, the 23 employees laid off this week are the only people to lose their jobs, but more layoffs are expected to come, according to an employee who lost a job.

It’s expected that a total of 60 employees will lose their jobs, according to the employee, who wished to remain anonymous.Those who lost their jobs were given four weeks of severance pay and were told that Wednesday was their last day.

They were also allowed to cash in on accrued vacation time.

But according to the anonymous college employee, any vacation or sick time accrued during their tenures at the college was eliminated after the sale.

Another employee let go Wednesday confirmed that.

“I had a colleague with about 500 hours sick time and that was just wiped away,” the employee said.

Tanner said he had no knowledge of whether employees were able to keep vacation time they had accrued prior to the sale.

The college announced plans for the sale in April. It was $23 million debt and the sale to ITT was supposed to erase that debt and result in an influx of cash to the campus.

At the time the sale was announced in April, President Robert Myers said he didn’t expect any layoffs. In fact, Myers said he expected to fill positions that the college had to keep vacant.

Myers also told employees to expect things like performance bonuses and stock options.

Calls to Myers’ office about the layoffs have been directed to ITT.