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Early Thursday morning, Brown announced it would be implementing a temporary, staff-wide hiring freeze in response to the “uncertainty we now face from federal actions.” In a letter to community members, Provost Francis Doyle and Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Sarah Latham wrote that the freeze will begin immediately and remain in effect through the end of the 2025 fiscal year for positions “with any component of unrestricted funds.”
These comprise 90% of all staff positions, University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in an email to The Herald.
An exemption process will be available for positions that, if vacant, would have significant impacts on “critical” operations, are essential to ensure compliance with “regulatory and legal requirements,” “support critical infrastructure” or “are required to ensure campus health and safety.”
The hiring freeze will not apply to student employment, according to Clark. Previously announced staff raises will not be affected by these measures, the announcement reads.
The University hired 767 staff during fiscal year 2024, according to the Office of Institutional Research.
Recent federal actions come as the University is looking to reduce a $46 million budget deficit. Brown has previously implemented a number of financial measures in response to the shortfall, including a restriction to 1% growth in faculty and 0% growth in unrestricted staff headcount.
The University also announced a series of other financial measures in the Thursday letter in an attempt to address “the potential significant impacts of federal government actions and ongoing shifts in the national economic landscape,” including slowing discretionary spending and instituting a salary freeze for high-ranking administration officials.
President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 will take a 10% salary cut alongside both Doyle and Latham.
In the letter, Doyle and Latham also announced a freeze on non-essential travel. Travel constitutes “an area with significant unrestricted expenses across Brown,” they wrote, noting that travel is deemed essential if it is contractually required, lacks virtual alternatives or is necessary for core academic and research operations.
Other institutions, including Harvard and Penn, have also announced hiring freezes.
Last week, Paxson announced a reduction in PhD admission targets and warned of potential layoffs amid the University’s assessment of ongoing federal financial uncertainty. The University has also formed a working group tasked with assessing “the orders coming out of Washington, D.C.”
In March 2020, the University implemented a staff and faculty hiring freeze with “very few exceptions,” citing financial uncertainty stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, faculty expressed concerns over the long-term effects of the freeze on plans for departmental expansion.
The impact of Thursday’s hiring freeze on academic and administrative units remains unclear, along with the extent of cuts to discretionary spending.
“Brown continues to explore a range of scenarios,” Clark wrote. “But the actions detailed in today’s message to campus are those that we are moving forward with at this time.”
Additional reporting by Cate Latimer.
Ethan Schenker is a university news editor covering staff and student labor. He is from Bethesda, MD, and plans to study International and Public Affairs and Economics. In his free time, he enjoys playing piano and clicking on New York Times notifications.
