Two months after the Trump administration froze $790 million in federal funding for Northwestern, University leadership introduced additional financial changes to address challenges in the wake of the freeze.
A faculty and staff hiring freeze and reductions to the permanent administrative and academic budgets are among the measures announced in a Tuesday message to the NU community — adding NU to the growing list of universities cutting spending in a time of uncertainty for higher education.
In the message, University leadership stated NU has now reached a need to implement a “series of cost-cutting measures” to ensure fiscal stability, citing potential federal changes to increase the endowment tax, decreased international student enrollment and overall reduction in federal research funding.
Other changes announced include future “modest” changes to employee tuition benefits, cutting merit salary increases, changes to NU’s health insurance program, reduction in planned investments for buildings and additional non-personnel budget reductions.
These new measures expand upon initial cost reductions announced in February, which implemented a 10% non-personnel spending reduction and a staff hiring review process.
“We continue to fight in myriad ways to get our federal funding restored, and to minimize the impact on our community,” the University leadership wrote in the announcement. “We hope and are reasonably optimistic that these efforts to restore our federal funding will bear fruit.”
The announcement stated more information will be released over the next few days and weeks.
Email: [email protected]
X: @ninethkk
Related Stories:
— Federal government freezes $790 million in funding for Northwestern
— February’s 10% spending reduction foreshadowed life under a federal funding freeze, faculty say
