{shortcode-29453e8919496441d82556a88e0aaffbb0070cdf}
Harvard’s Arts and Humanities division instructed department heads to collectively reduce their budgets for non-personnel spending by roughly $1.95 million as divisions across the Faculty of Arts and Sciences implement cost-cutting plans.
Faculty in the Science and Social Science divisions of Harvard’s liberal arts school said they have not yet heard from their divisional leaders about targeting a specific expenditure cut, but several departments in both divisions have shrunk their budgets for the coming year. The move comes months after FAS professors were told to develop contingency plans for departmental budget shortfalls, the latest response to the funding pressures brought by the Trump administration’s attacks on Harvard’s funding.
FAS spokesperson James M. Chisholm confirmed in a statement that some of the contingency plans developed earlier this year have now been implemented.
Harvard’s budget has come under relentless pressure since Donald Trump stormed back to the presidency. His administration has frozen more than $2.7 billion in federal funding to Harvard. And in July, Congress passed an endowment tax hike that raised the tax on the University’s endowment income from 1.4 percent to 8 percent.
Harvard officials estimate that the combined impact of federal actions could cost the University $1 billion annually.
The policy changes have put immense pressure on Harvard’s budget. Critical research on everything from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease has been halted midway through. Schools University-wide have been slashing costs left and right.
The FAS is no exception. The school announced in March that it would keep spending flat for fiscal year 2026 and halt full-time staff hiring. The FAS also paused “non-essential capital projects and spending.”
In May, FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra rolled out a new program to fund research by senior and tenure-track faculty whose federal grants were terminated by the Trump administration. The initiative, called the Research Continuity Funding program, covers 80 percent of the operating expenses previously covered by grants and will last through June 30, 2026.
And earlier in the semester, the FAS also appointed three groups to assess the school’s response to increasingly threatened funding streams. One committee dealt with recommendations about distributing limited funding for scientific research. The other two advised on potential staff reorganizations and the national financial landscape.
“These challenges are significant, and they will require careful, sustained work across the institution in the months ahead,” Hoekstra wrote in a July email to affiliates. “Our early action, shared sense of purpose, and deep commitment to our teaching and research mission serve us well.”
The FAS’s total budget last year was $1.67 billion, and its revenue was slightly higher. Federal funding is a small but significant fraction of that total. Roughly half the FAS’s operating revenue came from endowment distributions last year, and 20 percent came from tuition. About 12 percent was sponsored support, which includes both federal and private grants.
The changes to federal research funding will likely have long-lasting impacts on the FAS, Hoekstra has warned. But there is a possibility that at least some of Harvard’s frozen funding could be restored soon with a deal between Harvard and the White House.
Harvard restarted negotiations with the administration this summer, and the New York Times has reported that the two parties are nearing a deal that would involve the University paying $500 million to vocational and educational programs in exchange for its federal research funding.
A settlement could alleviate some of the financial pressures facing the University and the FAS. But it could also spark backlash among faculty, a majority of whom said in survey responses that they believe Harvard should avoid a deal with the White House.
And the Trump administration has proposed budget cuts to federal agencies, allowed grantmaking processes to grind to a halt, and is doing its best to shut off grants supporting research it dislikes, on topics like vaccines and race — all of which could mean that even a settlement may not restore Harvard’s funding levels.
In a statement to The Crimson, Chisholm wrote that “while the environment we are operating in is fluid and any budget reductions are painful, our commitment to the FAS’s core academic mission of excellence in teaching and research – in service to the public good – remains unchanged.”
—Staff writer William C. Mao can be reached at william.mao@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @williamcmao.
—Staff writer Veronica H. Paulus can be reached at veronica.paulus@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @VeronicaHPaulus.
—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.
