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Dive Temporary:
- Confronted with an “unsustainable compounding deficit,” George Washington College is freezing hiring and will lay off workers down the street, the non-public Washington, D.C.-based establishment stated in a group message Tuesday.
- The hiring freeze applies to positions funded instantly by the college and is about to final at the least till Oct. 1. GWU additionally plans to overview massive procurement contracts, reduce on capital spending, and tighten budgets for journey, occasions and leisure, amongst different strikes.
- Regardless of earlier budget-tightening measures, senior college leaders stated the outlook for the upcoming fiscal 12 months has deteriorated since April. Officers plan to current a full fiscal 2026 funds to the college’s governing board in early September.
Dive Perception:
Of their announcement, college President Ellen Granberg, Interim Provost John Lach and different officers cited political, financial and demographic challenges which are exacerbating GWU’s funds pressures.
On the coverage entrance, they pointed to the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to restrict funding for oblique analysis pricessimilar to amenities, utilities and different overhead, to federal grant awardees. Whereas federal courts have paused or struck down these strikes at 4 federal businesses, they’ve created deep monetary uncertainty for a lot of universities.
The officers additionally pointed to “important modifications within the general federal analysis panorama,” which has huge implications for the college, a significant nexus for federal grants. In fiscal 2024, GWU spent a complete of $471.6 million in federal grants from a big selection of federal businesses and different grantors.
Together with analysis funding disruption, officers pointed to a slowdown in visa processing and President Donald Trump’s current transfer to ban or prohibit journey from 19 nations. They described these modifications as “constraints on our means to enroll worldwide college students.” In 2024, GWU enrolled 3,661 worldwide college students, in keeping with institutional information.
Furthermore, the college, with its deep ties to the D.C. space, is starting to see home enrollment impacts from the Trump administration’s huge slashes to federal company workforces, in addition to normal monetary uncertainty amongst American customers.
Much more stress on graduate enrollment might come amid the elimination of Grad PLUS loans and caps on whole scholar borrowing, introduced on by the huge funds invoice handed by Republicans and signed by Trump final week.
However GWU had monetary challenges earlier than Trump took workplace. As Granberg, Lach and different officers famous, income development averaged 6.1% from fiscal 2022 by way of 2024 whereas bills grew 6.8%.
“Whereas this distinction may not appear important, its cumulative impact is an unsustainable compounding deficit,” they stated.
That funds hole resulted from pre-Trump structural challenges within the larger schooling world, together with rising prices and declining grasp’s diploma enrollments.
Between 2018 and 2023, GWU’s whole fall graduate scholar enrollment declined 9.2% to 14,181 college students, in keeping with federal information. The officers pointed to declines in worldwide scholar enrollment, which started on the college earlier than Trump’s latest journey bans and “at this level can not be seen as short-term.”
College leaders in April introduced a pause on merit-based wage will increase and a 3% funds reduce throughout models. However the challenges have solely deepened since then.
Now officers purpose for deeper funds cuts for fiscal 2026, “which we acknowledge will seemingly result in some reductions within the variety of workers and sure college positions, a step we have now tried to keep away from however can not any longer,” they stated Tuesday.
