Straws in the Wind - Part 160

From Inside Higher Ed: Colleges announced more than 850 job cuts last month amid a tumultuous year for the sector. The layoffs hit large, wealthy, research institutions, such as the University of Southern California and Harvard University, which have multi-billion dollar endowments but have been battered by federal research funding losses, as well as small colleges struggling with enrollment declines. Here’s a look at layoffs and program cuts announced in October.

University of Southern California: Grappling with a budget deficit of more than $230 million, USC announced a wave of layoffs last month that will see 259 employees lose their jobs...

Michigan State University: Squeezed by rising operating costs and federal research funding disruptions, the public university eliminated 99 positions as of Oct. 14, President Kevin Guskiewicz announced. Another 83 positions have been “lost due to federal funding cuts” this year, he added...

Carnegie Mellon University: Hit by a loss in federal research funds, the private university in Pennsylvania laid off 75 staff members at its Software Engineering Institute last month... Those cuts reportedly make up 10 percent of the institute’s total workforce...

University of Northern Colorado: Officials at the public university in Greeley announced last month that roughly 50 employees will be laid off due to financial challenges, including declining state funding and slumping enrollment... The university is looking to shed 80 to 100 jobs, between layoffs and eliminating vacancies...

University of Louisiana Lafayette: Facing a $25 million deficit, ULL plans to cut 70 jobs... The reductions will be achieved through a mix “of position eliminations, retirements, resignations and reassignments,” Interim President Jaimie Hebert wrote in an email last month...

Eastern Illinois University: Federal funding losses and decreases in international enrollment prompted layoffs at the public university in Charleston, which is cutting 44 jobs and closing 19 others, local TV station WCIA reported. Eastern Illinois plans to cut 23 instructors on annual contracts and 17 staff jobs, as well as not renew contracts for four academic support roles. Another 19 vacancies at EIU will not be restaffed...

Xavier University of Louisiana: The nation’s only historically Black Catholic university laid off 46 full-time employees last month—roughly 6 percent of its workforce—due to mounting financial pressures... 

Harvard University: Despite a booming endowment, Harvard is once again laying off employees. After an unspecified number of job cuts this summer, Harvard laid off roughly 40 employees in the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences last month...

Siena University: More than three dozen administrators and multiple faculty members are set to exit the private Catholic university in New York following a round of recent buyouts, the Times-Union reported. The newspaper noted that enrollment at Siena fell by more than 9 percent this year, and university officials have cast the buyouts as a restructuring effort to “right-size” the institution...

Clarke University: Amid financial pressures, the private Catholic university in Dubuque, Iowa, is cutting 13 academic programs and up to 37 jobs at the end of the academic year... Officials announced the cuts last month in response to declining enrollment and rising costs. A frequently asked questions page on Clarke’s website also noted “a significant budget deficit.” ...

University of Wisconsin-Madison: Ongoing cost-cutting measures at the Wisconsin flagship will see 31 employees laid off and another 156 positions left vacant... Officials announced cost-cutting moves earlier this year but said layoffs would be “a last resort.” ...

University of Idaho: State budget cuts have prompted Idaho’s public universities to trim some positions, including 28 staff and faculty jobs at the public research university... The University of Idaho is making the cuts to shave $3.1 million in personnel costs...

Nebraska Wesleyan University: Cost-cutting efforts at the private university in Lincoln prompted the layoff of 14 staff members and another three positions were reduced from full-time to part-time status, the Lincoln Journal-Star reported. Faculty members were spared from cuts, though some academic programs could be axed in the future following a program review... 

Rhode Island College: Buyouts are on the table at the public college in Providence, which is making voluntary retirement incentives available to as many as 101 employees in an effort to cut costs...

PennWest University: Citing enrollment and financial issues, the public university plans to furlough more than a dozen employees at two of its three campuses starting Nov. 16...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/business/cost-cutting/2025/11/07/october-brought-deep-cuts-multiple-campuses.

Straws in the Wind - Part 66

From the Boston Globe: In an era of higher education marked by cost-cutting and layoffs, some Massachusetts colleges are taking a dramatic step: Eliminating entire academic programs. Berklee College of Music earlier this month said it will phase out its contemporary theater degree. Clark University is discontinuing majors in Ancient Civilization and Studio Art. Boston University will shutter satellite master’s programs in social work in Bedford, Fall River, and Cape Cod. And Lesley University in Cambridge has stopped enrolling students in its once-acclaimed creative writing master’s program.

It’s a sign of struggle at colleges when everything from federal funding to international student enrollment is up in the air. Administrators are more pessimistic about their schools’ financial outlooks, and lending agencies have soured on higher education at large. That’s on top of a recently increased tax on university endowments, changes to federal financial aid for students, and a downturn in the population of college-aged young adults in the coming years.

...In November, Boston University said it will not accept new PhD students in a dozen humanities and social sciences programs. Then in July, BU announced it will close three satellite social work programs that offer evening and weekend classes to 35 students with other full-time jobs and childcare responsibilities...

Most of the affected programs and humanities courses are small and graduate a fraction of the students they did just a decade ago. Rhode Island College in Providence suspended 20 degrees, all in programs such as gender studies and modern languages, that project to graduate six or fewer students each year.

...Some colleges are explicitly divesting from liberal arts courses in favor of programs that they say offer more immediate job prospects. In designing a “career-focused” curriculum “driven by employer needs,” officials at Champlain College in Vermont stopped accepting students in seven majors, including pre-law, accounting, and data analytics. The University of Maine Board of Trustees in July voted to create five new adult education offerings while closing seven low-enrollment degrees. But most degree closures are tied to financial woes.

A consolidation of four academic degrees at Clark University in Worcester is part of a larger plan to streamline the budget that includes an indefinite hiring freeze and dozens of faculty layoffs. And Berklee College of Music announced it would not enroll new students into its contemporary theater program as a result of a review that considered enrollment trends and revenues, a spokesperson said.

Hanging over schools is the potential for a decline in international enrollment as the Trump administration clamps down on student visas from some countries and scrutinizes applicants’ social media accounts. Around 2,700 foreign students, or 32 percent of the Berklee student body, attend the college...

Full story at https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/30/business/universities-financial-struggle-majors/.

From the Daily Northwestern: Northwestern is set to eliminate more than 400 staff positions as it continues to grapple with a $790 million federal funding freeze in place from the Trump administration, multiple people familiar with discussions told The Daily. Staff from several schools across the University, including the Weinberg College of Arts and  Sciences and the McCormick School of Engineering, told The Daily that administrators had informed them of plans of staff layoffs hitting. ...Administrators confirmed it will begin the process of eliminating about 425 positions across the University, with half currently vacant, and reduce the University’s budget “attributable to staff” by about 5%. Notices about these position eliminations should occur in the next 48 hours, administrators said.

Administrators said NU currently faces a “significant budget gap” that cannot be bridged without cutting personnel costs. Those costs account for 56% of the University’s total annual expenditures...

Full story at https://dailynorthwestern.com/2025/07/29/lateststories/northwestern-to-eliminate-more-than-400-staff-positions-amid-mounting-financial-pressures/.