Faculty of Arts and Sciences Will Keep Budget Flat, Stop Staff Hiring for Fiscal Year 2026

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences will aim to keep spending flat for fiscal year 2026 amid threats from the Trump administration and long-term financial concerns, according to budget guidance shared by FAS financial officers in early February.

The guidance — released weeks before Harvard’s Monday announcement that the University would freeze faculty and staff hiring — also said the FAS would not hire any additional full-time staff during fiscal year 2026.

The message, which was distributed to FAS leadership and financial administrators, was framed as a response to the school’s long-standing structural deficit as well as political fears.

“The FAS faces a structural deficit, which has long been an important context for our financial planning,” the guidance read. “This reality coupled with possible future economic challenges argues for a planful and strategic approach to budgeting that prioritizes resiliency in support of our teaching and research mission.”

The move comes after FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra told faculty at a March meeting that she had instructed FAS programs “to prepare for significant financial challenges” and “build financial capacity” in the face of Trump’s attacks on university funding.

And it marks part of a broader effort to slash costs across the University to prepare for the possibility that more severe financial penalties could come from Washington. On Tuesday, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences rejected all waitlisted applicants.

Kofi N. Ofori and Susana Duda — the FAS’ chief financial officer and assistant dean of budget and financial planning, respectively — also wrote in the guidance that faculty should search for ways to reduce spending.

Ofori and Duda instructed FAS leaders to pull as much funding from external sources, such as foundations, as possible to provide the school with more flexibility in distributing its limited unrestricted funds. The two also urged FAS leaders to reduce discretionary spending by slowing the pace of new investments and phasing out “low-priority” initiatives.

“The FAS must increase financial capacity, and we need your help to enhance cost efficiencies and to identify new revenue streams and maximize existing ones,” Ofori and Duda wrote in the guidance.

But it remains unclear what positions and programs might be at risk. The leaders of individual units — including divisions, departments, and centers — have the discretion to build their budgets and pursue new resources as they see fit, within the constraints of the guidance.

FAS units were required to submit their individual budget plans on Feb. 28.

Faculty members familiar with the budgets of three FAS centers said they had received instructions to keep their spending flat.

But even flat budgets could amount to an effective decrease as centers’ costs rise from inflation and planned increases in staff salaries.

Staff in the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers will receive a two percent salary raise in July 2025. And pay increases for graduate students in the Harvard Graduate Students Union–United Automobile Workers are up in the air as the union negotiates its new contract.

In the February guidance, Ofori and Duda asked FAS leaders to approach cost-cutting efforts “with a clear understanding of the trade-offs” needed to sustain the school’s strategic priorities.

“The FY26 budget season presents an opportunity to begin to reprioritize mission-critical activities, stabilize expense growth, make meaningful progress on increasing revenue,” they wrote. “This disciplined approach will allow us to reallocate resources to areas of greatest need.”

—Staff writer William C. Mao can be reached at william.mao@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @williamcmao.

—Staff writer Veronica H. Paulus can be reached at veronica.paulus@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @VeronicaHPaulus.