Reduction in Northwestern’s Workforce
Dear members of the Northwestern community,
The past several months have been among the most difficult in our institution’s 174-year history. Northwestern faces pressures that have weighed deeply on each member of our community in significant and personal ways. It is hard to put into words how grateful we are for how you have continued to teach, do groundbreaking research, conduct the important day-to-day work of the University and care for one another amid unprecedented uncertainty.
In response to challenges we have been articulating since November, first to members of the Faculty Senate, then in a message to the community in January, Northwestern has taken several measures to protect the University’s long-term financial stability. Each of these measures has been painful — including changing employee benefits, implementing a hiring freeze, reducing non-personnel expenses by 10% and forgoing annual compensation increases.
Yet, the most painful measure we have had to take is the one we are informing you about today. While the actions we already initiated have been successful in reducing expenses, we still are left with a budgetary gap that cannot be bridged without cutting personnel costs, which comprise 56% of our total annual expenditures. As a result, Northwestern will reduce the University’s budget attributable to staff by about 5%, including layoffs that began this morning. Of the approximately 425 positions being eliminated across schools and units, nearly half are currently 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. Schools and units are carrying out this work with care and compassion, and they will communicate to their communities once all impacted staff members in their units have been notified, which should occur within the next 48 hours.
In preparing for staff reductions, we gave leadership from schools and units local discretion and asked them to think strategically about how to minimize the impacts to their units, our workforce, students, and the University. Still, we understand that reducing the workforce will have deep implications for how units operate and the range of services we have been accustomed to.
Higher education faces tremendous and mounting headwinds. We continue to work every day to get our frozen federal research funding restored, and we are hopeful it will happen soon. But we want to be clear that the financial measures we have taken this spring and summer — including layoffs — are in response to more than just the federal research funding freeze. These include rapidly rising healthcare expenses, litigation, labor contracts, employee benefits, compliance requirements and a suite of federal changes, such as potential constraints on our ability to enroll international students, as well as likely reductions in research Facilities and Administration reimbursements and in overall federal research funding. 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.
While we cannot control outside forces, we will continue to work hard to influence them in our favor, and we vow to be transparent and responsive as we work together to ensure Northwestern serves its mission to be one of the world’s great institutions of teaching and research for generations to come.