Layoffs, Budget Cuts Pile Up in June

From the nation’s wealthiest universities to struggling small colleges, institutions are shedding jobs as they contend with federal research funding uncertainty and other financial challenges.

Wealthy institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern and Cornell Universities and others have all either made cuts or announced such actions will be forthcoming as they navigate federal funding issues. For those universities, financial challenges are largely tied to proposed reimbursement caps on federal research funding and related actions from the Trump administration that has prompted cost-cutting efforts at even the richest universities.

But Trump-related cuts are mostly outliers.

By and large, the cumulative cuts across higher education in the last month were driven not by Trump but rather by dwindling enrollment, shrinking state support, rising costs and other financial pressures. Here’s a look at those layoffs and program cuts announced in June.

Southern New Hampshire University

The private university known for its large online presence is cutting 60 jobs, WMUR reported.

Positions eliminated span eight departments. Although university officials did not specify which departments were affected, LinkedIn posts from recently laid-off employees indicate workers in areas such as human resources and marketing were among the cuts. Officials wrote in a statement that cuts were part of ongoing efforts to allocate resources to evolving student needs.

“These decisions were made to ensure SNHU is well-positioned to achieve its long-term strategic goals, uphold our mission, and responsibly steward the university’s resources. This news does not reflect any contraction in our business operations or student services, and it is not a sign of financial distress,” a university spokesperson wrote to Inside Higher Ed by email.

University of Oregon

Grappling with an estimated $25.7 million budget deficit, the public university in Eugene laid off 42 employees last month, including 11 faculty members, Lookout Eugene-Springfield reported.

More layoffs are likely on the horizon.

Earlier this year UO leadership announced that they “anticipate a 4 percent average reduction to the budgets of administrative units and a 2.5 percent average reduction to the budgets of the schools and colleges.” Officials cited a mix of factors for their budgetary woes, including “the cumulative effect of federal and state actions” and rising labor costs outpacing revenue growth.

More information on additional cuts is expected in late summer or early fall.

Clark University

The private university in Massachusetts plans to cut up to 30 percent of faculty and 5 percent of staff and restructure degree programs amid ongoing financial challenges, MassLive reported.

Officials said the cuts were in response to missing enrollment targets by 80 to 100 students.

Although the university did not specify an exact head count for potential layoffs, it had 329 total faculty members in the 2024–25 academic year, 228 of whom were full-time, according to its Common Data Set. If Clark sticks to its 30 percent goal, nearly 100 people would lose their jobs.

Columbia College Chicago

Facing a multimillion-dollar budget deficit, the private institution made another round of cuts—one of several in recent years—laying off 20 full-time faculty members, The Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Eighteen of those 20 faculty members were reportedly tenured.

Local media outlets reported that CCC’s budget deficit is nearly $40 million. The college has felt a financial squeeze as enrollment collapsed from more than 12,000 students at its peak in the early 2010s to 5,570 in the 2024–25 academic year, according to CCC’s Common Data Set.

Western Washington University

Efforts to shrink a budget deficit that has grown to more than $23 million prompted the elimination of 20 positions at the public university last month, My Bellingham Now reported.

Of those positions, four were reportedly vacant.

WWU also cut dozens of jobs earlier this year in response to an $18 million deficit, which has now grown after the state’s legislative session, university officials told the news outlet. The deficit is expected to fall by about $13 million when cost-cutting measures are fully implemented.

Whitman College

Elsewhere in Washington, Whitman College laid off 10 staff members last month in an effort to address a nearly $3 million budget shortfall, Northwest Public Broadcasting reported.

Whitman also decided to not fill some vacant positions, limit raises this fiscal year and reduce salaries for top administrators.

Officials at the private liberal arts college blamed the budget deficit on “increasing pressures on higher education from both demographic and federal policy changes” that “are creating an ever-more competitive environment for recruiting students,” according to the news outlet.

Mercyhurst University

The private university in Pennsylvania cut five jobs last month, The Erie Times-News reported.

Eliminated positions were all staff members; no faculty appear to have lost their jobs. Mercyhurst president Kathleen Getz told the newspaper that the cuts were not signs of fiscal strain at the small Catholic university but rather “part of our annual budget process when we look at what’s the best way to be financially responsible.” She also noted that recent cuts were offset by other hires in athletic areas as Mercyhurst transitions to NCAA Division I status.