Cornell University will reduce its workforce and review its operations and programs to find ways to cut costs and address its "profound financial challenges" as a result of the federal government's slashing and freezing of funding since the Trump administration took office earlier this year, the university announced Friday.

"The spring semester was unlike anything ever seen in higher education, with hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research contracts at Cornell terminated or frozen, and serious threats to future research funding, federal financial aid, medical reimbursement, and research cost recovery, along with an anticipated tax on our endowment income, and rapidly escalating legal expenses," university officials said in a letter to the Cornell community. "These acute funding challenges come as Cornell has experienced a marked and unsustainable increase in expenses due to inflation, the expansion of our workforce, and other cost pressures. We have been using institutional resources to try to plug these funding holes in the short term, but these interim measures are not sustainable. We must immediately address our significant financial shortfalls by reducing costs and enacting permanent change to our operational model. This will require financial austerity in all areas of the university, as we comprehensively review and restructure university operations and programs, and it will require the participation and support of everyone at Cornell, as we seek the optimal ways to reduce costs while maintaining, to the maximum extent possible, the strength of our academic community."

Cornell officials said the university will begin a preview of programs and headcount in an effort to streamline processes and avoid duplication of work. Officials said the university's workforce has grown by more than 15% since 2021, which "greatly" outpaces revenue.

Hiring on all campuses will also "remain restricted for the 2025-2026 academic year" and research operations will be reviewed in an effort to make them more cost effective and efficient.

"While we will make every effort to downsize by attrition, we anticipate involuntary reductions in headcount across the university," the letter reads.

Back in April, the Trump administration froze more than $1 billion in federal money meant for Cornell due to “credible and concerning Title VI investigations.”

"Cornell's funding model, developed over 160 years, is strong and diversified, and has carried us successfully through many past crises. We are now experiencing simultaneous attacks or threats on every element of that model," Cornell officials said. "While we are confident that we will weather this crisis, we will only do so by working together to make the difficult, but necessary, changes to ensure that Cornell will continue 'to do the greatest good' for many years to come."