PROVIDENCE – Brown University will begin laying off 48 employees across campus, with those impacted being notified starting this week, the university announced on Tuesday.
The Ivy League school will also be eliminating 55 unfilled positions, which will no longer be pursued following the end of Brown’s hiring freeze, the university said in a posted announcement to its website.
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The moves are part of Brown’s effort to achieve $15 million in cost savings, as the university faces a projected $30 million budget deficit for fiscal year 2026, which has been exacerbated by federal funding cuts under President Donald Trump’s administration.
“One of the most significant decisions in developing the strategy to close this additional $30 million budget gap was to evenly divide budget measures between central University actions to reduce expenses by $15 million and giving academic and administrative units the discretion to decide how and where to reduce spending in their own areas to achieve the remaining $15 million in reductions,” according to the announcement.
Academic and administrative unit heads will now be tasked with reducing their budgets by 2.5%, according to the announcement, which noted, “It’s important to acknowledge that financial uncertainty remains.”
The university was already set to eliminate five administrative support staff positions across 16 of its academic departments, as first reported on Sept. 21 by the student-run Brown Daily Herald.
Under the consolidation plan, department chairs are being asked to create “neighborhoods” consisting of three departments that will share administrative support staff, the student-run newspaper reported. Currently, the 16 departments employ a total of 27 administrative support staff members.
Brown President Christina H. Paxson in August warned that ongoing financial pressures would likely necessitate layoffs.
Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Allen@PBN.com.
