Boston University joins the ranks of research universities recently announcing staff layoffs and … More
Boston University officials announced on Monday that the university will lay off 120 employees as part of its attempt to reduce its budget by 5% for the upcoming fiscal year.
In a letter to the campus community, BU President Melissa Gilliam, along with Provost Gloria Waters, Chief Financial Officer Nicole Tirella, and Senior VP for Operations Derek Howe wrote that the university “would implement an average 5% budget reduction across all units for FY 2026.”
Included in that budget cut is the elimination of about 120 staff positions plus another 120 vacant positions that BU will not fill. In addition, the officials indicated that “around 20 positions will undergo a change in schedule.”
The staff layoffs represent about 1% of BU employees. Those affected will be provided separation packages and career transitional services, according to the letter.
Which staff members are being terminated was not made clear. “Supervisors and Human Resources colleagues will meet with impacted individuals. Once this process is complete, schools, colleges, and unit leaders will inform their respective communities of the budget cuts and decisions made in each area,” read the letter.
The cuts were not unexpected. In the spring, BU administrators had warned that the university would need to make budget cuts due to several “financial headwinds.” At that time, they took the initial step of pausing merit-based salary increases.
Citing “recent and ongoing federal actions and funding cuts” that “are affecting our research enterprise as well as day-to-day operations,” the campus leaders said the institution faced other financial pressures that have become recently common in higher education, including, “rising inflation, changing demographics, declining graduate enrollment, and the need to adapt to new technologies.”
Boston University now becomes the latest major research university to announce that it’s being forced to reduce its budget due to a combination of threats, primarily involving federal funding cuts and freezes being implemented by the Trump administration.
In the months of June and July, several major research universities revealed that mounting financial challenges would necessitate substantial cost-cutting, requiring, in some instances, staff layoffs and academic program eliminations. Included in that list were Temple University, Cornell University, the University of Kansas, the University of Minnesota, the University of Maryland, Michigan State Univeristy, the University of New Hampshire, and the University of Nebraska.
A week ago, Brown University announced that “deep financial challenges” would require it to cut its spending to address a structural budget deficit that had earlier been projected at $46 million. And a few days before that, Stanford University revealed plans to cut $140 million in general operating funds for the upcoming 2025-26 academic year.
Yale University recently announced it was putting a 90-day hiring pause in place and reducing non-salary expenses by 5%. In addition, it is delaying several construction projects that had been planned.
Calling it “a day of loss for all of us,” the BU administrators wrote that “there is no way around this. We know our community may need time to adjust to these difficult changes.”
However, they described their decision as “a necessary step in ensuring our future. Across our campuses, teams are already working hard to position Boston University to thrive. Over the coming months, there will be many efforts to reshape and reimagine the University in its most efficient and vital form.”