Compiled by SUSAN JONES
As universities prepare their 2025-26 fiscal year budgets, there’s news emerging of impending cuts at several major institutions.
Temple University President John Fry said on June 18 that the university is forecasting a $60 million structural deficit for fiscal 2026. Temple leaders have asked vice presidents and deans to reduce their total compensation spending by 5% across units, Fry said.
“Unfortunately, this will result in the elimination of some positions,” he added. All university officers and deans also will forgo salary increases, while the school’s board of trustees will vote on a 1.5% merit pool for base increases for non-bargaining unit employees.
Other schools looking at cuts include:
University of Connecticut: Top leaders indicated that workforce cuts and other austerity measures lie ahead as the school and its health system are facing a combined $134 million budget gap in fiscal 2026. State appropriations are set to drop more than $110 million from the previous year and federal research funding is down $95 million due to lower awards and canceled grants. UConn is planning to reduce the number of non-permanent and temporary employees; restrict most hiring; review overtime and compensatory time; consolidate some office functions; restrict employee travel, and more.
University of Wisconsin–Madison: The school’s chancellor said in a letter to the university community that schools and colleges must cut 5% out of their 2026 budget, and the administration and other units must trim 7%. Jennifer L. Mnookin in her letter cited the risk of more federal grant terminations and cuts to indirect cost reimbursements; questions about international students’ ability to study in the United States; and uncertainty about state budget as reasons for the cuts.
UMass Amherst: All academic and administrative departments on campus have been asked to develop budget scenarios that include 3% and 5% reductions. The school cited federal research cuts and enrollment challenges, as well as more potential cuts in the federal budget.
Cornell University: President Michael Kotlikoff and other top officials said the institution must adopt “financial austerity” in the face of federal research cuts, potential endowment tax increases, escalating legal expenses, inflation and other cost pressures.
Stanford University: The private California school is bracing for layoffs as it navigates “significant budget consequences” from federal policy shifts, President Jon Levin and Provost Jenny Martinez said in a community letter on June 26. Leaders recently released a plan for the 2025-26 academic year that will reduce operational funding by $140 million. University units have been advised to prioritize Stanford’s core mission of education and research when drawing up their budgets, the officials said, but layoffs may be necessary. For the upcoming academic year, Stanford, which has the fourth largest endowment among U.S. schools at $37.6 billion, will increase its endowment payout by 2.9% to help support its budget and operations, Higher Ed Dive reported.
UVA upheaval
The other big story during the past two weeks was the resignation of University of Virginia President James Ryan on June 27, after demands by the Trump administration that he step aside to help resolve a Justice Department inquiry into the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, the New York Times reported.
In a letter to UVA’s board, Ryan said he had planned to step down at the end of the next academic year. But “given the circumstances and today’s conversations,” he wrote, he had decided “with deep sadness” to tender his resignation now.
Faculty leadership held an emergency meeting after the announcement to adopt a resolution opposing the change, and hundreds of students and faculty members gathered for an impromptu march in support of Ryan.
The university’s governing Board of Visitors voted in March to end its DEI office under the Trump administration’s order that U.S. schools end diversity programs or risk losing federal funding. But the Justice Department accused the school of failing to dismantle DEI and sent a letter dated June 17 warning that it needed to act fast, the New York Times reported.
Happening in higher education
June 5: Harvard Medical School renamed its diversity office and announced changes to several major diversity, equity and inclusion programs, according to the Harvard Crimson. Dean George Daley wrote that the changes were part of an effort to “adapt to the ever-evolving national landscape” and “better reflect” the school’s work going forward. The Office for Diversity Inclusion and Community Partnership is now the Office for Culture and Community Engagement. In May, Harvard also rebranded its central Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, now titled the Office for Community and Campus Life.
June 11:
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Nearly three-quarters of American voters believe international students studying at U.S. colleges and universities benefit the country, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll reported on by Diverse Issues in Higher Education. The survey found 74 percent of respondents view foreign students as “a good thing” for America, while only 17 percent consider their presence detrimental. Democratic voters showed overwhelming support at 96 percent, while three-quarters of independent voters (75 percent) and nearly half of Republicans (49 percent) shared positive views.
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Tulane University researcher Kimberly Terrell resigned, the Associated Press reported, citing censorship from university leaders who had warned that her advocacy and research exposing the Louisiana petrochemical industry’s health impacts and racial disparities in hiring had triggered blowback from donors and elected officials.
June 14: News emerged that the U.S. is considering restricting entry to citizens of an additional 36 countries, according to a State Department memo reviewed by The Washington Post. The memo, which was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and sent to U.S. diplomats who work with the countries, said the listed nations were being given 60 days to meet new benchmarks and requirements established by the State Department. The countries facing scrutiny: Angola; Antigua and Barbuda; Benin; Bhutan; Burkina Faso; Cabo Verde; Cambodia; Cameroon; Democratic Republic of Congo; Djibouti; Dominica; Ethiopia; Egypt; Gabon; Gambia; Ghana; Ivory Coast; Kyrgyzstan; Liberia; Malawi; Mauritania; Niger; Nigeria; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Sao Tome and Principe; Senegal; South Sudan; Syria; Tanzania; Tonga; Tuvalu; Uganda; Vanuatu; Zambia; and Zimbabwe.
June 16:
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U.S. District Judge William Young in Massachusetts ruled it was illegal for the Trump administration to cancel several hundred research grants, adding that the cuts raise serious questions about racial discrimination, the Associated Press reported. He said the administration’s process was “arbitrary and capricious” and that it did not follow long-held government rules and standards when it abruptly canceled grants deemed to focus on gender identity or diversity, equity and inclusion. A Pitt spokesman said there were five Pitt-related grants on the list. In the hearing June 16 on two cases calling for the grants to be restored, the judge pushed government lawyers to offer a formal definition of DEI, questioning how grants could be canceled for that reason when some were designed to study health disparities as Congress had directed.
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A federal judge ruled the AAUP and the American Federation of Teachers had no standing to file a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s cuts to research funding at Columbia University. Therefore the cuts can remain in effect, at least for now. The groups have appealed.
June 18: A federal judge ordered the U.S. Department of Education to reinstate all laid-off Office for Civil Rights employees for now, saying the layoffs and shuttering of seven regional offices had rendered the remaining staff “incapable of addressing the vast majority of OCR complaints,” according to Higher Ed Dive.
June 20:
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law legislation allowing public college and university presidents to take over faculty governance bodies. Senate Bill 37 says that only an institution’s governing board can create a faculty council or senate. If a board decides to keep one, the college or university president gets to pick the “presiding officer, associate presiding officer, and secretary” and prescribe how the body conducts meetings.
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A federal judge in Boston blocked a Trump administration effort to rescind Harvard’s right to host international students. The judge also ruled that the government had to tell American diplomatic posts and ports of entry to “disregard” instructions to restrict Harvard’s participation, according to the New York Times.
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A federal judge struck down the National Science Foundation’s cap on indirect research costs at 15%, striking another blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to cut research overhead funding, according to Higher Ed Dive. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani ruled that the policy is “arbitrary and capricious” and doesn’t align with federal law or regulations. With her ruling, indirect cost caps have now been blocked or struck down at all four major federal agencies that have implemented them.
June 22: After 104 days in a Louisiana immigration detention center, former Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil was released on bail, following a federal judge’s ruling that he be set free. Khalil, a legal permanent resident married to a U.S. citizen, was the first of several students across the U.S. who were detained and threatened with deportation because they had participated in student protests opposing Israel's war in Gaza.
June 23: Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird led attorneys general from 16 states (Pennsylvania was not included) in filing an amicus brief in support of the Trump administration after Harvard sued the administration to prevent billions in federal funding from being stripped from its coffers over its response to antisemitism on campus.
June 24: The University of Cincinnati shuttered its diversity, equity and inclusion programs in response to a Republican-led change in Ohio law that banned such programs and threatened to withhold money from schools that fail to comply, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
June 26:
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A plan to expand Pell grants to students in short-term workforce programs was cut from a budgetary megabill despite immense bipartisan support, according to Inside Higher Education. It was one of several higher education-related provisions struck down by the Senate parliamentarian, who decides whether each provision adheres to Senate rules. Other provisions that violated Senate procedural rules included plans to consolidate student loan repayment options for current borrowers, limit grant access for noncitizens and exclude medical residents from a loan-forgiveness program.
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Six public higher education systems are forming their own accrediting agency for public colleges, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a fierce critic of the traditional accreditation system, announced. The new agency — called the Commission for Public Higher Education — is being created by the State University System of Florida, the Texas A&M University System, the University System of Georgia, the University of North Carolina System, the University of South Carolina system and the University of Tennessee System, according to Higher Ed Dive.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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