Cornell University officials say the institution is going forward with cuts and restructuring in the face of “acute fiscal pressures.”
Those pressures include rising expenses, federal funding cuts, and what university officials described in a statement released Friday as “an uncertain and unprecedented federal landscape.”
Budget reductions are already underway, according to the statement. The university will begin restructuring operations late this year and into 2026. Officials said the university will hold a series of in-person town hall meetings at its Ithaca and New York state campuses addressing the changes.
Hiring is still restricted indefinitely at the university, which is Tompkins County’s largest employer.
“It will also, inevitably, mean reducing our workforce — a painful prospect for a community like ours, with a strong sense of shared identity and purpose,” the statement said.
In a prior statement addressing financial pressures, university leadership said that the university anticipated “involuntary reductions in headcount.”
Cornell is one of many higher education institutions across the country navigating financial struggles due to funding freezes or cuts.
Earlier this year, the New York Times reported that the federal government had frozen over $1 billion in funding for Cornell amid civil rights investigations.
Some other universities that have had their funding pulled for similar reasons have made deals with the federal government to get their grants restored. Columbia University, the first college to see cuts under the Trump administration, paid a $200 million fine and made significant policy changes to get $400 million in federal funding back.
This month, Bloomberg reported that Cornell was in talks to make its own deal and was expected to pay a nearly $100 million settlement, according to an anonymous source. However, no official deal has been announced so far.
