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Nearly a dozen positions that directly support students were among those eliminated in a sweeping round of layoffs at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences earlier this month, according to a document obtained by The Crimson.

Roughly 35 staff members — or about 15 percent of SEAS’ total staff — were affected by the cost-cutting measure designed to mitigate the impacts of federal actions, the document showed.

The list was distributed to employees as part of a Massachusetts requirement aimed at preventing age discrimination. It explained the layoffs, which spanned multiple divisions within SEAS, as on the basis of “the current and future needs” of SEAS, “job criticality” in support of those needs, and employee tenure at the school.

Christopher Lombardo, a lecturer and adviser in the Department of Electrical Engineering, condemned SEAS’ decision to terminate his and others’ student-facing role at the school.

“I believe that these student-facing layoffs run counter to the mission of SEAS and Harvard College,” he wrote in a statement.

While Harvard has previously laid off staff at the School of Public Health and the Kennedy School, those reductions primarily affected administrative staff and researchers. The SEAS layoffs appear to be the first University cost-cutting measures to directly affect undergraduate-facing positions.

A SEAS spokesperson declined to comment, citing a policy against discussing personnel matters.

The recent round of layoffs also included one other student adviser: Bryan Yoon, a lecturer in the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering.

Yoon’s and Lombardo’s roles entailed serving as the primary advisers to all students in their department for course selection, graduation requirements, and other academic matters. Their departments have historically been among the SEAS’ smallest concentrations.

Both also teach courses at the school. Yoon teaches an introductory course on ESE, while Lombardo is the faculty advisor of Engineering Without Borders, a student organization focused on building clean water infrastructure projects for underserved communities abroad.

As part of his role, Lombardo designed a course tied to the program that offers course credit for students. He wrote in his statement that the course was unlikely to continue after he left SEAS which would be a “major loss for Harvard.”

“This was one of the only courses across Harvard College in which students were gaining essential skills and immediately putting those skills into practice for the benefit of low-resource communities around the globe,” he wrote, adding that it would have a lasting impact on communities the group supported in Kenya and the Dominican Republic.

Yoon declined to comment on his termination. But in an email to ESE concentrators last week, which was obtained by The Crimson, he wrote that “this notification was a surprise to many.”

“I truly loved being your instructor, advisor, and mentor,” he wrote in the email. “I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect job, and it’s all thanks to you.”

Yoon added that his duties as a lecturer and adviser would be “picked up by ESE faculty and SEAS staff” in the email.

Yoon and Lombardo’s removal drew fire from students, who condemned SEAS’ decision to lay off their advisors with little prior notice.

Kimmy G.A. Thompson ’26, an ESE concentrator who said she found a “sounding board” in Yoon, said his and Lombardo’s termination would be a “huge loss” for SEAS students.

“I think it’s just kind of not fair for ESE students to no longer have that role accessible to them when so many other things in the College still have it,” she said.

In the email announcing the layoffs, SEAS Dean David C. Parkes cited a “budgetary gap” due to an increase in the endowment tax, a drop in the indirect research cost reimbursement rate from the federal government, and research funding allocation changes.

But at the time, he did not specify how many individuals were affected by the layoffs, or how the decisions to terminate had been made.

Emily Xing ’27, who took Lombardo’s course last fall, wrote in a statement that he “played a key role in the SEAS ecosystem.”

“Losing Lombardo makes me concerned that Harvard would lose a long-time instructor for one of the few applied, uniquely mission-driven classes,” she wrote.

​​—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.

—Staff writer Saketh Sundar can be reached at saketh.sundar@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @saketh_sundar.