New York University has enacted a hiring freeze and directed its schools to prepare contingency plans while its federal funding is in jeopardy.
The belt-tightening, first reported by NYU’s student newspaper, the Washington Square News, came one business day after the Trump administration announced it would investigate the university over its diversity programming. The hiring freeze is effective immediately.
“We don’t yet know whether, when or to what extent these or other measures may be enacted,” NYU President Linda Mills and other senior university officials wrote in an email Monday to faculty and staff concerning a number of changes to federal policy, such as planned cuts to medical research funding.
“In the meantime, we continue to vigorously advocate for robust federal support of higher education,” they wrote. “Given the scale of potential outcomes, however, we need to address risks sooner than later.”
An NYU spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.
Over the past couple of weeks, federal agencies have revoked hundreds of millions of dollars from two colleges with connections to President Trump — Columbia University, in his native New York City, over antisemitism allegations, and his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, over its transgender sports policies. Trump’s son Barron is a freshman at NYU.
Both Columbia and Cornell University have implemented hiring freezes — Columbia specifically for its medical programs and Cornell university-wide.
In the NYU email, Mills warned faculty to expect lower salary increases than in recent years, as the university considers other ways of generating revenue to “help offset likely losses.” An exception process is available to fill “critically needed positions” during the hiring freeze, she said.
Last week, the U.S. Education Department announced that NYU and dozens of other universities across the country were being probed over their partnerships with The PhD Project, a nonprofit that helps students of color earn doctoral degrees in business. The agency had previously said any school that continued diversity, equity and inclusion programming was at risk of losing federal funding.
The PhD Project opened its membership application this year to students of all races and ethnicities.
As a major research institution, NYU is also at risk of losing money from the National Institutes of Health, which intends to cap the overhead costs that universities rely on to run their labs and pay staff. The plan is currently on hold by order of a federal judge.
Sponsored research, such as that funded by the federal government, accounts for 11% of NYU’s total operating revenue, according to university data. The information does not cover NYU Langone, which operates the university’s medical school and also relies on federal funds.
Meanwhile, Mills announced that NYU would continue to be tuition-free for any family making under $100,000. Other financial aid programs are also secure, the college president said.
“Despite the fiscal challenges ahead,” the email read, “we are committed to preserving our core mission of teaching, learning and research, and to supporting our community.”