Harvard and Princeton universities, which have two of the largest endowments in the United States, are implementing hiring freezes and reductions in construction plans, respectively, in response to the declining economy.
Harvard announced last week that its Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which includes the undergraduate college, will implement an immediate freeze on staff hiring, according to a Nov. 25 article in the Boston Globe. The university is simultaneously strongly encouraging department heads to cancel ongoing faculty searches.
FAS Dean Michael Smith said positions deemed "critical" would be filled and paid for with funds created by cuts in expenses elsewhere, according to a Nov. 26 article in the Harvard Crimson. Reviews for promotion within the tenure-track system will continue as scheduled, Smith wrote in a e-mail sent to faculty and select administrators detailing the hiring freeze, according to the Crimson.
Harvard's endowment was $36.9 billion prior to the economic crisis, but the Crimson reported that it could have dropped by 30 percent in recent months, based on a Moody's prediction to which Smith referred. Smith said in a November faculty meeting that "pushing off" pending administrative hires for the current fiscal year could save the university $10 million.
"Given our heavy reliance on endowment income, these losses will have a major and long-lasting impact - one that will require significant reductions in our annual expenses," Smith wrote in the e-mail.
Princeton announced yesterday that the university will cut its 10-year, $3.9 billion construction budget by $300 million, according to a statement on the university's Web site. New neuroscience and psychology buildings will be pushed back one year, to June 2010, and other construction and renovation plans will be delayed much longer, beyond the end of the current capital plan, which ends in 2016.
Those postponed projects include the construction of a satellite art museum and storage facility, according to a Nov. 26 article in the Daily Princetonian. Additionally, Green Hall, the current location of the psychology building, will not be renovated as previously scheduled.
Princeton's endowment was $16.4 billion on June 30, according to Bloomberg News.
The satellite art museum, which was scheduled to be part of the first building phase for the arts neighborhood, was delayed because the academic buildings will have a greater impact on undergraduate education, Executive Vice President Mark Burstein told the Daily Princetonian.
"Postponing saves money," Burstein said. "It gives us more time to design the project so that it is a more efficient project, and it also gives us more time to fundraise for the project."
Princeton also announced that some faculty and student housing projects will be delayed, though the university is still planning to upgrade the quality of graduate student housing.
Other universities, including Brown, have also felt the crunch from the economic downturn. President Ruth Simmons announced a hiring freeze of staff and administrators at the University's November faculty meeting. The hiring freeze is scheduled to last until January.
Cornell imposed a hiring freeze of all new faculty from outside the university through March and has halted all new construction for at least 90 days, the Cornell Daily Sun reported on Oct. 30. Dartmouth announced delays in construction projects and a hiring freeze on Nov. 13, according to the Dartmouth, the college's student newspaper.
More than 20 other colleges and universities, including several states' entire university systems, have also announced hiring freezes, the Chronicle for Higher Education reported Nov. 28.
