400+ Jobs Cut At Northwestern University Amid Budget Crisis

EVANSTON, IL — Northwestern University announced it would eliminate approximately 425 positions amid an ongoing budget crisis.

In a letter to the community posted Tuesday, university officials said while previous actions to cut costs have helped — including changing employee benefits, implementing a hiring freeze, reducing

non-personnel expenses by 10% and forgoing annual compensation increases — there is still a budgetary gap.

Personnel costs at Northwestern comprise about 56 percent of the university's annual expenditures, officials said, and job cuts would reduce that by approximately 5 percent. According to the university, nearly half of the 425 positions being eliminated are already vacant.

"Laying off staff is a drastic step that causes pain and anxiety both for the individuals whose lives are affected, but also for our entire community, and we do not take it lightly," university officials said in a statement.

In January, the university released its financial update message that cited rising costs related to
compliance requirements, health care expenses, litigation, labor contracts, employee benefits as serious financial impacts.

And with changes on the federal level — including increases in the endowment tax, constraint on the admission of international students, caps on indirect cost recovery and a reduction in federal research funding — officials said the building financial issues must be addressed.

"We continue to work every day to get our frozen federal research funding restored, and we are hopeful it will happen soon," officials said. "Even when federal research funding is restored — no matter what that may look like — it will not be enough to reverse the actions we are taking now."