Stanford University will cut $140m from its budget, citing 'federal policy changes'

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Mon 30 Jun 2025 17.57 EDT
Last modified on Mon 30 Jun 2025 20.46 EDT


Stanford University will cut $140m from its budget in the coming academic year, citing “consequences from federal policy changes” including “reductions in federal research support and an increase in the endowment tax”. The news came in a letter Jon Levin, the university president, and Jenny Martinez, the provost, sent to faculty and staff last week.

The budget cuts will likely necessitate staff layoffs, deepening the impact of a staff hiring freeze the university announced in February. The university will continue hiring faculty, “although the pace may be somewhat slowed”, Levin and Martinez wrote. The cuts exclude the School of Medicine, which will make its own budget reductions.

“We believe deeply in the value of universities, in federal support for basic research, and in the endowment model that underpins financial aid and graduate fellowships. We will continue to advocate for these things,” Levin and Martinez said. “At the same time, we need to be realistic about the current landscape and its consequences.”

Stanford has been hit particularly hard by federal changes to research grants and a proposed endowment tax. The university has lost millions of dollars in federal grants this year, according to databases tracking cuts to National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation grants maintained by Noam Ross of rOpenSci and Scott Delaney of the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/30/stanford-university-budget-cuts

[Bayard]

1. Taxing an endowment?

That's low, as usual.