As President Alan Garber wrote in Harvard’s FY25 financial report, the University is “no doubt” in “among the most difficult and demanding periods” in its history. Navigating it will require “difficult but necessary choices” to focus “resources on Harvard’s core mission of teaching, learning, and research.”
This week, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) made one of those choices.
On Wednesday, FAS announced a 25% reduction in non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty budgets across its Arts & Humanities, Sciences, and Social Sciences divisions, citing its long-standing $365 million structural deficit. FAS says current NTT faculty won’t be laid off, but the reduction will occur through non-renewals and by not replacing departures.
It’s still unclear whether this choice serves Harvard’s mission or cuts into it. The answer will lie in what FAS does next.
The concerning path is the passive one. At face value, the NTT reduction fits FAS’s current cost-containment focus. FAS has already reduced two years of PhD admissions by 50% and is operating under the University-wide hiring freeze. Nothing about this decision, on its own, guarantees that teaching capacity lost through NTT non-renewals will be preserved. Absent a plan to maintain course offerings and backfill teaching roles, the likely outcome is fewer courses, larger classes, and less capacity for the kind of high-touch instruction the College prides itself in — even as it pushes to “re-center academics” and restore rigor.
But there’s another path. FAS could use this budget cut as an occasion to re-center teaching responsibility and expectations with tenure and tenure-track (ladder) faculty.
In its 2021 faculty trends report, FAS found that between AY03 and AY22, ladder faculty headcount grew by ~10%, while NTT faculty grew by ~43% (measured in FTEs), even as College student enrollment grew by only ~7%. The Crimson reports that as of today, NTT faculty has increased by about 60% over the past two decades. The general trend: as the undergraduate student body expanded slightly and ladder faculty stayed relatively flat, more day-to-day teaching shifted to non-ladder faculty.
The same FAS faculty trends report flagged this imbalance and set out FAS’s hiring strategy to address it: “strategically grow the ladder faculty while keeping the non-ladder faculty relatively flat.”
For this to work, the cut would need to be treated as an academic move, not just a budget one. That means elevating excellent teaching in practice — for example, FAS could emphasize ladder faculty teaching expectations and ensure teaching performance is meaningfully reflected in incentives, including tenure, promotion, and compensation evaluations.
Done well, this could also reinforce the College’s push to “re-center academics.” With institutional support and aligned incentives, additional teaching responsibility would be less likely to feel like an added burden, and more like a core part of what Harvard expects, values, and rewards.
A 25% reduction in non-ladder roles will still be a difficult transition, even if it happens through non-renewals rather than layoffs. In a period of “difficult but necessary” choices, some discomfort is inevitable.
What isn’t inevitable is letting student learning degrade by default. If FAS approaches this as an academic strategy with real follow-through, it can emerge from this financial pressure with both a stronger bottom line and a stronger academic core.
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Q: When Harvard shifted classes online for the blizzard and most students and professors were remote, did staff still have to come in?
Non-essential staff were encouraged to work remotely during the blizzard, but essential on-campus staff with scheduled shifts, including custodians and dining hall workers, were still expected to report in. Custodians assigned to extended snow removal and other workers with early morning shifts stayed on campus Sunday night. Some workers reported that while food and lodging were promised, designated sleeping areas ran short on cots, and some ended up sleeping in undesignated places across campus, including first year dorm common rooms and custodial closets.
Events
London, UK — March 17 from 6:00-8:00 pm GMT: Meet Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Dean Jeremy Weinstein (PhD ’03) at this HKS on the Road series event. Register here.
Virtual — April 1 from 10:00-11:00 am ET: At this Inside HBS series event, Harvard Business School (HBS) Dean Srikant Datar and Executive Director of MBA and Doctoral Programs and External Relations Jana Kierstead will discuss recent developments and priorities at HBS, including around AI and entrepreneurship. Register here.
Cambridge, MA and Virtual — April 9 from 5:30-7:00 pm ET: Harvard Graduate School of Education is hosting University Professor Danielle Allen (PhD ‘02) on the role of schools in civic education as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, with discussion focused on patriotism, pluralism, and democratic participation in polarized times. Register here.
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FYIs
HKS Offers Military Applicants Four-Year Deferral After Pentagon Cuts Ties With Harvard
The Pentagon later said it would end Pentagon-funded attendance at additional elite universities, naming Princeton, Columbia, MIT, Brown, and Yale, and indicated the list could expand.
Under HKS’s plan, admitted active duty applicants who cannot enroll may defer admission for up to four years. They can also choose to have their application routed for expedited review at four schools: the Harris School (University of Chicago), the Fletcher School (Tufts), the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs (UT Austin), and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy (University of Michigan). Each participating school would conduct its own admissions and financial aid review.
This is not the first time HKS has built a contingency plan under Dean Jeremy Weinstein (PhD ‘03). Last summer, amid uncertainty around Harvard’s ability to enroll international students, Weinstein secured an arrangement that would have allowed affected students to complete their degrees in person at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. The backup plan was not needed.
FAS Raised $222 Million in Late 2025, $62 Million More Than the Prior Year
According to an internal slide deck obtained by The Crimson, Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) raised $222 million in the second half of 2025 (first half of FY26), which is $62 million more than it raised over the same period the prior year.
The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) also reported $21.8 million in gifts and pledges in this period, which is more than triple its average raised during this period in the four years prior.
According to Dean of FAS Development Michael Faber, a significant share of the $222 million came from a relatively small group of major donors. 13 donor households gave between $5 million and $9.99 million, and the school’s first eight figure gift of the year was a $20 million restricted endowment from a single unnamed donor.
FAS accounted for roughly 25% of Harvard’s total fundraising in the first half of FY26, and had raised more than $34 million for the Harvard College Fund and roughly $35 million for financial aid.
SEAS Eliminated Extra Pay for Graduate Students Who Teach Beyond Required Load
Graduate students in Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) who teach more sections than required for their PhD programs no longer receive additional compensation under a policy that took effect at the start of the fall 2025 semester.
Under the new policy, when students teach in a semester they would otherwise spend solely on research, SEAS keeps their total pay the same by shifting funding away from their research assistant support and toward their teaching compensation.
The Crimson reports several SEAS graduate students criticized the “chaotic” rollout of the change, saying many did not realize the policy had taken effect until months later. SEAS adopted the change as part of a broader overhaul of its PhD funding model announced to faculty in June 2024.
Under updated teaching expectations, students who entered the SEAS PhD program in fall 2024 or later are generally expected to teach two sections unless their faculty advisor arranges to buy out the second, while students who entered in fall 2023 or earlier are required to teach one section.
Harvard Lays Off 55 Staff in Alumni Affairs and Development Office
Harvard laid off 55 staff members in Alumni Affairs and Development (AA&D) on Tuesday, citing budget constraints, according to an email from AA&D Vice President Jim Husson.
Husson said earlier cost cutting steps, including a pause on merit-based wage increases and limits on hiring, had not been enough for the office to meet its budget reduction goals amid Harvard’s broader austerity measures, but with “our new organizational structure now in place, and with input from the managers who will lead these teams going forward, we have made difficult but necessary decisions to ensure AA&D’s sustainability.”
Husson worked at Harvard early in his career before serving in leadership roles in development and alumni relations at Penn, Brown and Boston College. He stepped into his new role as Harvard’s chief fundraiser in April 2025 following a period of donor pullback linked to the University’s response to October 7 and related campus turmoil.
More News at Harvard
New York Times: “What’s Driving the Spike in College Students with Disabilities”
The Crimson: “Alumni Interviewers Say Harvard’s Ban on Mentioning Race Has Created Confusion in Write-Ups”
Harvard Gazette: “Wonder served him well” — feat. President Alan Garber (AB ’76, PhD ’82)
The Crimson: “Overseer Hopeful Nisha Kumar Behringer Calls for Rethink of Harvard’s Public Image”
The Crimson: “Overseer Candidate Philip Harrison Calls Alumni Interview Guidance ‘A Shame’”
The Crimson: “Overseer Candidate Clive Chang Calls DEI Office Closures ‘Disappointing,’ Urges Long-Term Focus”
Harvard Gazette: “Singer to step down as senior vice provost for faculty”
The Crimson: “HDS Weighs New Clinical Pastoral Education Program as Hospital Placements Decline”
The Crimson: “Harvard, Custodial Union Reach Tentative Agreement on Four-Year Contract After Five Months of Negotiations”
The Crimson: “Harvard, HAW-UAW Reach Deal on Intellectual Property but Clash on Time Caps, Immigration”
The Crimson: “After Diversity Office Closures, Students Sustain Black History Month Programming”
The Crimson: “South Asian Studies Department Apologizes for ‘Insensitive’ Image on Sanskrit Program Website After Backlash”
Yale School of Public Health: “Yale, Harvard deans discuss rebuilding trust in science and public health” — feat. HSPH Dean Andrea Bacarelli
The Crimson: “HMS Professor, Israeli Theatre Director Reflect on Cross-Conflict Friendship at HKS Panel” — feat. HMS assistant professor of pediatrics Eman Ansari (MPH ‘05)
The Crimson: “Harvard Is Probing Its Ties to Epstein. A Reckoning Must Follow.” — editorial by The Crimson Editorial Board
The Crimson: “A Republican Walks Into a Harvard Bar” — op-ed by former U.S. Rep. Ric Keller (MRPL ‘26)
The Crimson: “Grade Deflation Will Be Good For Us. Trust Me.” — op-ed by Matthew Tobin (AB ‘27)
The Crimson: “How Many Women Teach in FAS? Harvard Won’t Say.” — op-ed by Harvard English and Theater, Dance, Media professor Derek Miller
The Crimson: “Harvard Promises a Liberal Arts Education. Let’s Make Sure It Delivers.” — op-ed by Michael Isayan (AB ‘29)
More News Beyond Harvard
Amherst Student: “Faculty Discuss Responses to Grade Inflation”
Daily Princetonian: “U. to consider proctoring for all in-person exams, a departure from 133 years of precedent”
Yale Daily News: “Provost forms faculty committee to write academic freedom statement”
Daily Pennsylvanian: “Penn approves 3.9% tuition hike, expands financial aid offerings for 2026-27 academic year”
Los Angeles Times: “Harvard is fighting Trump. UC president says he wants to try ‘a better course’”
Boston Globe: “Dartmouth College went all-in on AI. Then came the tension.”
Inside Higher Ed: “ED Changes Timeline to Recognize New Accreditors”
Boston Globe: “Klaviyo founders give $6 million to boost MIT startups, Boston’s competitiveness”
Yale Daily News: “Epstein, efficiency, ‘Hamnet’: takeaways from an interview with McInnis”
Cornell Sun: “Kotlikoff Lays Out Cornell Financial Plans at Employee Assembly Meeting”
Columbia Spectator: “Center for American Studies launches weekly discussion series connecting students with experts to dissect breaking news topics”
Jewish Insider: “Columbia denies connection to student group posting ‘death to America’ over Iran strikes”
Daily Northwestern: “Jewish Voice for Peace hosts panel on Zionism, antisemitism”
Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “Vanderbilt launches inquiry into instructor after math question about Israeli occupation draws criticism”
The Free Press: “‘Holocaust 2.0’ Threat Sent to Stanford Chabad House”
Stanford Daily: “University to pursue investigation, increase security following antisemitic emails”
Inside Higher Ed: “ED Changes Timeline to Recognize New Accreditors”
NPR: “College students, professors are making their own AI rules. They don't always agree”
Higher Ed Dive: “‘We will hold institutions accountable,’ top US education official vows”
Higher Ed Dive: “Indiana bill would eliminate ‘low earning’ degrees”
Washington Post: “Why U.S. military officers need to go to Harvard. And Columbia. And …” — op-ed by J.B. Branch (MC/MPA ‘25) and Allan Cameron (MC/MPA ‘25, EDM ‘27)
Washington Monthly: “Graduate Loans Should Reflect Graduate Earnings” — op-ed by Kelly McManus, Executive Vice President of Education at Arnold Ventures
Washington Post: “The best education for future success might surprise you” — op-ed by Assumption College president Greg Weiner