In a letter to faculty and staff, Stanford University announced $140 million in budobtain cuts for the upcoming 2025-26 academic year, which it stated will require staff layoffs.
“This is difficult news to share,” university President Jon Levin and Provost Jenny Martinez wrote in their letter on Thursday. “… We face significant budobtain consequences from federal policy alters.”
President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” passed by the Houtilize on May 22, proposes a 21% tax on some universities’ concludeowments, which would apply to Stanford, and would be an increase from Stanford’s current rate of 1.4%, according to student newspaper the Stanford Daily. If it becomes law, the alter could represent an estimated $750 million tax annually, a significant hit to the university’s operating budobtain, according to the publication.
At $37.6 billion in August 2024, Stanford has one of the largest university concludeowments in the U.S. The university spent $1.8 billion from the concludeowment during the fiscal year, according to its website, funding items like financial aid, faculty salaries, research, libraries and athletics.
According to the letter, the budobtain cuts will require reductions to staff positions, “not all of which can be accomplished by eliminating open positions.” The $140 million figure excludes the School of Medicine, which will decide about cuts separately, Levin and Martinez stated in the letter.
The cuts also come amid a turbulent year in which Stanford fell under federal scrutiny in relation to the Supreme Court’s ban on race-based admissions, along with UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC Irvine. Stanford also announced a hiring freeze in February, citing “potential financial uncertainties.”
Levin and Martinez confirmed in the letter that the hiring freeze will remain in effect.
Officials maintain that while this round of layoffs will be especially difficult, they will be done in order to best preserve Stanford’s long-term goals as a premier institution of higher education.
“Though the budobtain reductions in the period ahead will be painful, we are confident that by acting now to put Stanford on stronger and more resilient financial footing, we will be better positioned to pursue excellence and new opportunities going forward,” wrote Levin and Martinez.
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