Cornell University warned of job cuts and “financial austerity in all areas” as it steps up efforts to address budget shortfalls stemming from US funding cuts under President Donald Trump.  

Short-term measures are no longer enough to plug the gaps left by the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research contracts, Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff and other school leaders wrote in a message on June 18. The Ivy League university now needs to shrink its workforce and cut other costs to bring about “permanent change to our operational model,” they said. 

“It is important that every member of this community understands both the scale of the challenges our university faces, and the seriousness of the risks,” they said. “Cornell’s funding model, developed over 160 years, is strong and diversified, and has carried us successfully through many past crises. We are now experiencing simultaneous attacks or threats on every element of that model.”

Mr Trump has ramped up financial pressure on universities, pushing to raise a tax on endowments and cancelling research deals while hammering schools for their handling of anti-semitism on campus following the Oct 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel and the Jewish state’s retaliatory response in Gaza. Other schools including Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have also cut costs in response to the pressure. 

Cornell, which had some federal grants frozen earlier this year, said it was contending with “rapidly escalating” legal costs and increased personnel expenses. Headcount has increased by more than 15 per cent in the past four years, significantly outpacing the university’s revenue growth, it said. 

The need for personnel will be reviewed across every part of the Ithaca, New York-based school, they said. The university expects to make involuntary staff cuts, not just control costs through attrition. 

Cornell will also keep in place hiring restrictions and limits on travel and other discretionary expenses. Looking ahead, the school leaders cited the threats posed by the loss of future federal funding and financial aid and the proposed endowment-tax hike in the budget “One Big, Beautiful Bill” now pending in the US Senate. BLOOMBERG

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.