BUZZ
Other universities cutting staff this summer include Harvard and Duke
Two more higher education institutions announced major staff layoffs this week as they grapple with funding cuts, rising expenses, and lawsuits – some in connection with the Trump administration’s actions.
The latest staff cuts come from Northwestern University and Barnard College, which is connected to Columbia University. Their announcements follow similar downsizing at Duke and Harvard.
At Northwestern in Illinois, President Michael Schill said approximately 225 employees will be laid off and 200 vacant positions will be eliminated, starting Tuesday, WGN 9 reports.
Spokesman Jon Yates told WGN-TV the layoffs – which amount to approximately 5 percent of its staff – are the result of “mounting financial pressures” despite cuts the university already has made.
“While deeply painful, today’s reduction in workforce will help ensure our University can continue to serve its mission to be one of the world’s great institutions of teaching and research for generations to come,” Yates said.
The Trump administration’s decision to freeze about $790 million in federal grants to Northwestern is one reason for the cuts, and the possibility that it may revoke the university’s ability to enroll international students is another, Schill wrote in a letter this week to the campus community, according to the report.
Other factors “include rapidly rising healthcare expenses, litigation, labor contracts, employee benefits, compliance requirements and a suite of federal changes,” he wrote.
“Even when federal research funding is restored—no matter what that may look like—it will not be enough to reverse the actions we are taking now,” Schill wrote.
As recently as 2022, Northwestern employed one administrator for every two undergraduate students, an analysis by The College Fix found.
Meanwhile, Barnard College in New York stated Thursday that it plans to lay off 80 full-time employees, the New York Post reports:
The layoffs come about three weeks after Barnard leaders agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by Jewish students claiming the Columbia University-affiliated school failed to properly address campus antisemitism.
“As part of a one-time, college-wide restructuring, we’ve made the hard but necessary decision to eliminate multiple staff positions across departments,” Barnard President Laura Rosenbury wrote in a letter on the college’s website.
In all, 77 staff members were culled, none of them faculty or from instructional services. … The all-women’s school was facing a $252 million debt crunch at the end of fiscal year 2024, and a ballooning deficit that had doubled over the past decade.
The staff at Duke University in North Carolina will be shrinking as well.
Last week, the university stated 599 employees agreed to a voluntary buyout program, and more will be laid off in August, according to The News & Observer.
Administrators cited “actual and potential federal funding reductions” as reasons for the cuts, according to the report:
“We determined that an involuntary reduction in force is necessary only after careful consideration and extensive consultation with leadership across Duke,” read the message from Duke Executive Vice President Daniel Ennis, Provost Alec Gallimore and School of Medicine dean Mary Klotman.
Ahead of the layoffs, all university units will be asked to identify further non-personnel budget cuts they can implement, which will “determine the scale of” the layoffs. … More than 250 faculty are also considering offers for voluntary retirement incentives, per the message.
MORE: Harvard announces more layoffs as fight with Trump admin continues
IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: A gate displays the name of Northwestern University; Paul Brady Photography/Shutterstock
