Tag: buyouts

  • University of Nebraska System offers buyouts to tenured faculty amid budget woes

    University of Nebraska System offers buyouts to tenured faculty amid budget woes

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    Dive Brief: 

    • The University of Nebraska System is offering buyouts this fall to tenured faculty members eligible for retirement across its four campuses as the institution’s leaders look to shave $20 million from its budget.
    • Buyouts will be available to tenured faculty who will be at least age 62 at their date of separation and have worked at least 10 years in the system. More than 500 faculty members will qualify, according to reporting from Channel 8 News. 
    • In a Friday message to faculty and staff, system Chancellor Jeffrey Gold said the buyouts would position the institution “for long-term strength and financial sustainability.” The system has made several rounds of cuts in the past few years in the face of rising costs and limited state funding increases. 

    Dive Insight: 

    Like many other higher education institutions, the University of Nebraska System has sought to lower its expenses amid myriad financial headwinds, including rising labor costs and state and federal funding challenges. In June, system leaders approved plans to cut $20 million from its budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year and raise tuition by an average of 5%. 

    Those moves come after system leaders slashed $11.8 million from the most recent budget and $30 million from two years prior. The system has also offered several waves of buyouts over the past 15 years, though the payouts have decreased, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. 

    In this case, those taking the buyouts will receive 70% of their annual base salary in a lump sum payment. In 2019, eligible faculty who took buyouts got 80% of their annual salary and in 2014 they received 90%, the Journal Star reported. In 2010, eligible faculty received 100% of their salary. 

    Faculty members who take the latest buyouts will separate from the university next summer. 

    However, not all faculty members who apply will automatically be approved. While the system plans to allow as many interested employees to participate as possible, an FAQ said “each campus reserves the right to limit the total number of participants in order to preserve the viability of programs and services, as well as to remain fiscally responsible.”

    The news comes as the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the system’s flagship campus, plans to slash $27.5 million from its own budget by the end of the year to remedy a structural deficit. The cuts could include eliminating or merging academic programs. 

    Earlier this month, UNL President Rodney Bennett said will review a planning committee’s recommendations for cuts and present final budget recommendations to Gold in October. 

    UNL officials also plan to grow extramural grants and contracts and boost revenue through higher enrollment and retention. They also hope to see increased revenue from the system’s tuition hike, which raised in-state undergraduate tuition from $277 to $291 per credit hour. 

    The other institutions in the Nebraska system are the University of Nebraska at Kearney, the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

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  • Duke University offers buyouts and signals future layoffs as federal cuts hit

    Duke University offers buyouts and signals future layoffs as federal cuts hit

    Dive Brief:

    • Duke University is offering voluntary buyouts for employees and has frozen hiring as it braces for federal funding cuts, the institution said Wednesday. 
    • The North Carolina institution signaled that layoffs were likely in the coming months, but said it is “pursuing several employment actions now in hopes of reducing the scale of involuntary separations later this summer.”
    • The moves are in response to federal cuts and policy shifts, which could translate into funding losses for Duke between $500 million and $750 million, university officials said during an internal webinar Wednesday, according to media reports.

    Dive Insight:

    Historically, much of Duke’s research enterprise has been devoted to work on behalf of the government. Federal grant support made up nearly three-quarters of the $1.5 billion in sponsored research funds that Duke received in fiscal 2024, much of it going toward health science.

    The university, in its latest financial statement, described its medical school as “one of the largest biomedical research enterprises in the country.” And funding just from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — which houses the National Institutes of Health — accounted for 58% of all of Duke’s sponsored research funding. 

    The National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy also accounted for tens of millions of dollars in the university’s funding. 

    Since President Donald Trump retook office, those agencies and others have been cutting and delaying grant awards at a frantic pace, including moves to cap reimbursement for indirect research costs at NIH and the Energy Department. Both funding caps have been blocked in courts — at least for now — but the Trump administration is continuing to fight the legal cases against the policies. 

    Uncertainty over the funding will likely loom for some time to come. 

    For Duke, the NIH indirect cost cap would mean $194 million in lost funding each year, President Vincent Price and other leaders said in February. 

    “Much is at stake,” the officials said then. “Our nation’s world-leading research enterprise has been enabled by — and will only be sustained by — partnership and co-investment from both the government and higher education.” 

    They also signaled at the time that “careful planning and difficult decisions” could lie ahead. 

    Today, Duke is trying to cut $350 million from its budget, according to reports of the university’s presentation, as it grapples with funding gaps under the Trump administration. 

    As it trims down, Duke has paused capital spending on buildings, renovations and other projects that are “not fully funded or deemed essential,” the university said Wednesday. 

    It’s also reviewing universitywide programs — such as technology adoption, off-campus real estate and on-campus space consolidation — for potential cost-savings.  

    Employee benefits could also be on the chopping block. 

    “A study is also under way to assess how certain changes to the university’s benefits may generate savings while protecting the program’s strong competitive position,” Duke said.

    However, Executive Vice President Daniel Ennis told employees Wednesday that the university still plans to give out merit raises and will not change its tuition grant program for children of employees. 

    Universities around the country have been scrambling in recent months to open breathing room in their budgets to cope with the uncertainty and disruption created by cuts and delays at federal agencies. Many have frozen hiring and budgets to maintain financial flexibility while others have laid off employees to cope with cuts.

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