Yale Announces New Wave of Budget Cuts

Yale President Richard C. Levin announced Wednesday a new round of sweeping budget cuts as part of the university's ongoing efforts to close a $150 million budget deficit.

In a letter to the community, Levin called for salary freezes for top administrators and a 2 percent cap on salary increases for faculty and staff. The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will take a 10 to 15 percent reduction in the number of accepted students, and funding for research and undergraduate study abroad programs will also be affected.

Levin cautioned that despite improved market conditions, the university must absorb cuts to core academic programs to close the budgetary gap for “the next and subsequent years.”

The proposed cuts, when combined with a previously announced slowdown in campus construction, will bring the deficit down to $100 million, Levin wrote.

Levin assured that Yale would continue its commitment to keep staff layoffs to a minimum.

“We are, of course, hoping to keep staff reductions as low as possible, but some will be necessary,” Levin wrote.

Geoffrey Little—a spokesman for the Yale University Library, which chose to cut its collections budget rather than lay off employees last year—said that top administrators had painted a grim outlook during a series of town hall meetings in early December.

“This was not a surprise,” Little said, adding that he expects further cuts in the collections budget this year.

The announcement came a day after Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith updated the Faculty with a more positive financial outlook—FAS had exceeded its expectations and cut its own deficit from $110 million in September down to $80 million.

Smith reiterated plans announced in December to unfreeze staff and faculty salaries and avoid cuts in library funding.

Last academic year, Yale took cost-cutting measures similar those FAS implemented, such as slowing faculty recruitment and freezing non-essential staff hiring.

In planning for the fiscal year ending in 2009, FAS Spokesman Jeff A. Neal wrote in an e-mail to The Crimson that FAS dealt with the financial crisis by reacting quickly with steep budgetary reductions.

“That work,” Neal wrote, “along with a realigned focus on current use gifts, has enabled us to emerge sooner and stronger than might have occurred otherwise.”

—Staff writer Noah S. Rayman can be reached at nrayman@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Elyssa A. L. Spitzer can be reached at spitzer@fas.harvard.edu.