Ellie Park, Managing Editor

Yale will tighten its purse strings as it braces for funding cuts from the Trump administration. 

The University announced that as it creates the 2026 fiscal year budget, it expects to reduce spending on faculty raises, faculty and staff hiring, campus construction and general non-salary expenditures.

The announcement is an attempt to set expectations for what funding will look like ahead of when schools and units submit budget proposals to the University. The email sent to faculty and staff requested that leaders of Yale’s schools and units draft contingency plans for if they lose funding in addition to submitting routine budget proposals.

“We will advance Yale’s mission based on current law while preparing to pivot in the event that circumstances change,” the email states. “Given the gravity of the current situation, we have decided there is a need to move more cautiously.”

The Wednesday afternoon email was co-signed by Provost Scott Strobel, Senior Vice President for Operations Jack Callahan ’80 and Vice President for Finance Stephen Murphy ’87. It both announces changes that will be made at the university level and asks constituent schools and units to restrain the spending under their control.

The three co-signatories wrote that they are considering which of Yale’s renovation and construction projects could be delayed until the financial impacts of federal policy changes are clear. They also expect “more modest” salary increases than faculty and staff have received in past years. 

At the school and unit level, the email suggests that University leaders reassess ongoing and planned job searches for whether “these roles are necessary for executing essential activities given the current environment.” It requests they review their multi-year projects that are in progress and “slow” other non-salary expenditures.

Howard Forman, a professor of radiology and biomedical imaging, said that budget restrictions diminish university operations in order to free up money as a safety net for potential federal shortfalls.

“If you have even a two-year or four-year reduction in funding, you’re going to see a change in the tactics of the University with regard to how they implement their vision for research,” Forman said.

The Wednesday email names two federal policy proposals as examples of threats to Yale’s finances: increased taxes on university endowments and cuts to federal funding for research. President Donald Trump imposed a 1.4 percent tax on the endowments of most private colleges during his first term and Vice President-elect JD Vance LAW ’13 later proposed a dramatic increase to 35 percent. In January, Trump ordered the freeze of trillions in federal aid, and in February the National Institutes of Health sought to cap the indirect cost reimbursements that fund large parts of Yale’s research.

The federal government has also warned that it would cut federal funds to schools that do not suspend diversity initiatives and Trump wrote on social media that he would revoke funding for schools that allow “illegal protests” on campus.

Although most of Trump’s proposed cuts have so far been rescinded or temporarily blocked, the University’s directive signals fear that some change could ultimately impact revenue. The threats have specifically targeted scientific research and university programs with ties to diversity goals, but Yale’s spending pullback is a broad move to limit spending across all areas.

Daniel HoSang, a professor of American studies, said that he hoped that there would be future opportunities for faculty, staff and students to provide feedback in the budgeting process.

“I’m grateful that we haven’t made any premature or preemptive cuts as some other institutions have, and there’s a real sense that they want to wait and see how things develop and unfold, especially at the federal level,” HoSang said. “But I can’t stress enough, the time to start having faculty-to-faculty discussions is now. Because if the worst case scenario gets ushered in very quickly, and everyone is just in a mindset of defending their own programs, it risks fostering a really big internal conflict.”

The University released a 2024-25 budget update on Dec. 12, which first warned that spending in 2026 would “be far more constrained.” In that update, the University cited low endowment returns and the “broader economic climate” to explain the expected budget reductions.

Forman said that the constrained 2026 budget echoes the University’s response to the 2008 financial crisis. Then, Yale put planned construction projects on hold and laid off as many as 100 staff members. Forman predicts that Yale will not need to be as aggressive in its response to potential Trump administration funding cuts.

“I don’t think anything they’re proposing is unreasonable at the moment,” Forman said. “What they are trying to do is not cut programs.”

For the 2025 fiscal year, Yale expects $5.85 billion in expenses.