Features

Stanford freezes hiring and considers layoffs

Wednesday October 30, 2002

STANFORD — One of the nation’s wealthiest universities has frozen hiring for some nonfaculty positions and may be forced to lay off workers as early as next spring. 

Many public universities, which rely heavily on state revenues, including the University of California and California State University systems, put limited hiring freezes in place last year. 

But education experts said Stanford’s announcement, one of the first in the nation from a top private institution, may signal a decline in funding for private colleges and universities, which rely heavily on endowments. 

Dartmouth College in New Hampshire announced layoffs Thursday, the same day Stanford made its plans public. And Duke University earlier this month raised the possibility of cutting as many as 50 faculty positions. 

Stanford officials say they hope the hiring freeze and other moves will avoid layoffs. 

“We are going to be asking people to do more, and we are going to have to look at where we can cut back on programs, where we can cut services that will not impact academics,” said Randall Livingston, Stanford’s chief financial officer and vice president for business affairs. 

Stanford said the cutbacks are due to increasing costs plus a decline in the university’s endowment, donations and federal research funding. University officials have projected an 8 percent drop in Stanford’s $507 million general fund next year. The general fund is about one-quarter of the university’s $2.1 billion consolidated budget.