Keene State College has called off the spring session of its Cheshire Academy for Lifelong Learning due to staffing constraints, the program recently announced via email.
The decision comes after the program coordinator job was cut during a wave of layoffs late last year. In November, 25 staff positions were terminated at Keene State — eight of them vacant — as part of cost-cutting measures as the college works to make up a $4 million budget deficit put in place by the N.H. Legislature.
The CALL educational program offers noncredit classes geared toward senior citizens. Keene State Director of Marketing Sarah Kossayda said there is a good chance that the program runs again in the fall.
“We have taken the time to draft a financially viable program that could be self-sustainable and could continue to offer the valuable programs the community has enjoyed,” Kossayda said in a March 5 email to The Sentinel. “We appreciate how impactful the CALL program has been and hope to offer it again in Fall 2026, once a new coordinator is hired.”
In February, Keene State was weighing whether it could offer the program in the spring, but ultimately decided it was unable to do so because of “resource constraints,” Kossayda said.
An email the program sent to CALL participants on March 2 cited “ongoing staffing constraints [that] make it impossible to organize a spring program.”
Keene State was looking at the program, which was dependent on a subsidy from the college to operate, during cost-cutting conversations, Kossayda said last week.
“We believe that with some focus and revisions to the program, there is a high probability that a CALL program can be offered again in Fall 2026,” she said.
Keene State is looking to fill the cut coordinator role with a part-time position that it will post “in the coming months” and hopes to hire “late this spring,” the email from CALL to participants notes.
“The college eliminated a position that not only oversaw the CALL program but also carried many other responsibilities,” Kossayda told The Sentinel. “KSC is in the process of hiring someone in a part time role that will focus primarily on CALL.”
CALL sessions run in the fall, spring and summer, but the program also canceled its truncated winter session, according to a Feb. 2 email from CALL to its students.
Nathalie Houder, Keene State’s executive vice president of finance and administration, said in December that CALL’s participation had dropped about 50 percent since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over 700 people took part in CALL pre-pandemic, Houder said. In December, the number of participants stood at roughly 300.
While there is no formal program this spring, some instructors are independently teaching their classes, according to the program’s March email to participants.
Noah Diedrich can be reached at 603-355-8569, or ndiedrich@keenesentinel.com.
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