Approximately 50 employees of Harvard Management Co., the group responsible for overseeing Harvard University's endowment, will be laid off over the next few months, according to Reuters. The employees, who comprise approximately one-quarter of HMC's workforce, are being let go as part of expected budget cuts following the University's $8-billion endowment loss in the first four months of the current fiscal year, Reuters reported. The endowment, which was formerly valued at $37 billion, had typically outperformed the endowments of other universities over the past decade. Its significant downturn, announced two months ago, came as a surprise to the investment community, according to Reuters. HMC's expected staff cuts will "include some investment professionals, as well as 'back office' and other support personal," University spokesman John Longbrake said in a statement on Friday.
The University of Chicago Medical Center announced Monday that it would lay off 450 employees, effective immediately, due to restructuring of the center's research and health care programs, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The center will also implement a hiring freeze, the Sun-Times reported. The medical center originally announced in December that it had to trim $100 million from its annual budget, according to the Sun-Times. The budget cuts amount to approximately 7 percent of the total budget of Chicago BioMedicine, the umbrella organization that includes the medical school.
The Massachusetts Board of Education voted against raising tuition rates at state colleges and universities on Thursday, following recent news that the proposed state budget for next year reduces aid to state schools by 11.6 percent, according to the Boston Globe. The state needs to keep tuition rates steady in the current economic climate, Richard Freeland, the commissioner of higher education, told the Globe. Students attending many Massachusetts colleges and universities, however, must often pay additional fees, which far exceed state-mandated tuition, to support individual campuses, according to the Globe. These fees may increase, the Globe reported. The Board urged state schools to encourage all of their applicants to submit federal financial aid forms, in light of a recent Massachusetts study that suggested that an additional 16,000 students could receive $59 million in federal funding if they completed aid applications, the Globe reported.