Dartmouth College will freeze staff hiring, delay construction and merge departments to cut 10 percent from its budget, the school announced Thursday. Dartmouth’s endowment slid 6 percent, or $220 million, between July 1 and Sept. 30.
Dartmouth’s provost, Barry Scherr, has asked departments to plan contingencies for 5, 10 and 15 percent reductions in spending, he wrote in a letter. Dartmouth joins its Ivy League peers Cornell and Brown universities, which have already announced hiring freezes and other cost-saving measures. Stanford University, also facing a steep drop in its endowment, has said it will cut spending by 10 to 12 percent.