Interim SAS dean calls graduate admissions cuts a ‘cost-saving measure,’ cites NIH funding cap

Interim School of Arts and Sciences Dean Jeffrey Kallberg attributed the school’s decision to cut graduate admissions to National Institutes of Health funding changes in emails sent to faculty and staff. 

In a Feb. 23 email obtained by The Daily Pennsylvanian, Kallberg wrote that the “difficult” decision to reduce graduate program admissions rates by one-third was a “necessary cost-saving measure to help mitigate the impact of these new funding realities.”

Kallberg wrote that the NIH’s proposed 15% cap on indirect costs — which provide funding for overhead research expenses such as lab spaces and support staff — “would have an immediate and broad impact” on University finances and Penn’s ability to delegate resources to SAS.

“While the cap has been temporarily blocked by a restraining order, it remains clear that we are operating in a highly unstable fiscal environment and should expect to see a decline in federal support this year,” Kallberg wrote. 

While the NIH does not fund individual graduate programs, Kallberg identified NIH grants as direct sources of the SAS and University operating budgets. According to an email from Interim Penn President Larry Jameson, the University stands to lose $240 million from the proposed funding cuts.

While a judge temporarily halted the NIH funding changes following a lawsuit brought by Penn and 12 other universities against the NIH, Kallberg emphasized the “highly unstable fiscal environment” and anticipated “decline in federal support this year.”

Kallberg also described the SAS cuts as part of a broader change to admissions “both across Penn and at some of our peer institutions.” He reiterated the school’s commitment to “maintaining the strength of our graduate programs” and “closely monitor[ing] the impacts and uncertainties being shaped by external forces.”

“We also recognize the problematic aspects of the timing of this decision – an unfortunate reflection of the speed at which changes have been taking place at the federal level, causing disruptions in what is typically a predictable and well-planned process,” Kallberg wrote. 

Kallberg also called the change “disappointing” in the wake of prior challenges to the graduate admissions process, including the admissions freeze on school-funded Ph.D. programs during the 2021-22 academic year in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kallberg echoed a similar sentiment in a message sent to SAS graduate and department chairs on Wednesday, according to an email obtained by the DP. 

“To help lessen the financial impacts of the NIH action, SAS must reduce the size of the incoming graduate cohort by about one third,” Kallberg wrote on Feb. 19. “We are working to make these cuts as equitable as possible across all graduate groups.” 

In statements and interviews with the DP, SAS faculty members said that all departments within the school were notified to reduce the size of their graduate programs.

In his Feb. 19 email, Kallberg referenced a message Interim Penn President Larry Jameson sent earlier this month addressing the NIH funding cuts. 

“The unprecedented action taken by the National Institutes of Health to immediately cap at 15% the Facilities & Administration … rate on research grants to universities has, as President Jameson intimated in his recent email to the Penn community, necessitated that individual schools—among them SAS—introduce further cost saving measures,” Kallberg wrote in the Wednesday letter. 

In his Feb. 11 email to the Penn community, Jameson wrote that the NIH funding cuts would “severely harm” the University’s “highly impactful research mission.”

A Penn graduate chair — who requested anonymity due to fear of retribution — wrote in a statement to the DP that the admission reductions were further explained to graduate chairs on Thursday by SAS Associate Dean for Graduate Studies Beth Wenger. 

A request for comment was left with Wenger. 

“Wenger explained to the graduate chairs the nature of the cuts coming across the programs and their reason, the sudden colossal budget shortfall, and told graduate chairs each would receive an email Friday announcing their new admissions quota,” the professor wrote. “The exact nature of the impact of announced cuts is still being figured out by many [graduate] groups, and negotiations are still being held by some with the Dean. But many are stuck with the cuts imposed on them.”

The DP could not confirm how many schools will be affected by these cuts to admissions at the time of publication. According to another graduate chair, who also requested anonymity due to fear of retribution, “every Penn school is independently assessing the adverse impact this will have on its operations.”

The chair noted that “unlike other graduate admissions programs within Penn that are dependent in part on NIH resourcing,” their school will be minimally affected, although other impacts — including the support of essential workers — will be felt “across the campus and every other institution in the country.”

“This is not a step any of us wanted to take. We recognize that graduate students are central to the intellectual life of our School—as researchers, teachers, collaborators, and future scholars,” Kallberg wrote in his Feb. 23 message. “However, we must ensure that we can continue to provide strong support for those students currently in our programs and sustain the School’s core teaching and research activities.”