PROVIDENCE – Despite reaching a critical agreement with the federal government to restore millions of dollars in research funding late last month, Brown University is still in financial dire straits with its 2026 fiscal year budget.
With that, layoffs are now “necessary” as part of the Ivy League institution’s plan to help balance its books, according to university leadership.
In a letter Tuesday to the campus community, Brown President Christina H. Paxson, Provost Francis J. Doyle III and Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Sarah Latham said the university still is expecting a $30 million loss due to actions taken by the Trump administration. Brown’s leadership says the recently passed “One Big Beautiful Bill” and other policy developments will “impose fewer costs” on the university than originally expected.
This news comes despite Brown and the Trump administration on July 30 reaching
a voluntary agreement to restore more than $50 million in research funding for federally sponsored medical and health sciences research within 30 days. The deal resolves open reviews against the university concerning
alleged violations of the federal 1964 Civil Rights Act’s Title VI provision. The deal also includes Brown paying $50 million in grants over the next decade to workforce-development organizations within Rhode Island.
Paxson, Latham and Doyle wrote Tuesday that while the budget gap is lower than originally feared by the university – ranging between $40 million to more than $100 million – the restored funding is still not enough to erase Brown’s financial woes. They wrote Brown still expects to see “a significant decline” in federal research funding from such agencies as the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy and National Endowment for the Humanities.
Brown leadership also noted that the university took out loans of $300 million in April and $500 million in July to protect the university against worst-case financial scenarios. These included the possibility of multiple years without federal funding, Paxson, Doyle and Latham wrote.
“There is a persisting threat of deep cuts to indirect cost reimbursements for research grants to higher education,” Brown leadership wrote, “and other federal policy changes will affect tuition revenue.”
As a result, layoffs are anticipated to occur at Brown but Paxson, Latham and Doyle did not state how many people will lose their jobs. They wrote that impacted staff will be provided with support and resources by the university through separation agreements, covering severance pay and outplacement services.
Also, Brown leadership is encouraging the elimination of nearly 350 currently unfilled positions at the university in lieu of cutting current employees.
Other cost-cutting measures to be implemented by Brown include consolidating health plans to a single health insurer, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island; selling some “non-strategic” real estate holdings on the city’s College Hill section to meet housing demand off campus; pausing “net-zero” upgrades to campus buildings; making small reductions in information technology and facilities renewals; and prioritizing fundraising for current-use gifts at Brown, which leadership says will have “an immediate positive impact” on the university’s budget.
“The financial challenges faced by Brown and many other colleges and universities continue to be daunting,” Paxson, Doyle and Latham wrote. “The federal actions of the past few months, many of which are now codified in legislation, have established a reduced funding framework for much of what we do, though we continue to closely monitor ongoing shifts in federal policies.”
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on X at @James_Bessette.
