Boston University announced it will eliminate about 120 occupied staff positions and close around 120 vacant listings, in a letter to faculty and staff on July 7. This coincides with a budget reduction of an average of 5% across all University units for the 2026 fiscal year. Both measures are set to take effect within the next several days.
The decision was a reaction to BU’s “challenging financial reality.” This includes federal funding cuts, rising inflation and changing demographics, according to a University statement.
“Every effort has been made to limit the number of layoffs, and these actions will apply to approximately 1% of our employees,” BU President Melissa Gilliam and other University leaders wrote in the July 7 letter. “Still, we know that any reduction in staffing is painful.”
Recent federal policy changes have prompted efforts to cut costs at higher education institutions across the country including Harvard University, Northwestern University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
BU stated it will communicate personally with each affected employee, providing information about support and available transitional services.
Some faculty do not agree with how BU executed the layoffs.
Mary Battenfeld, co-president of the BU chapter of the American Association of University Professors, wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press that she believes the University appeared to take action without “faculty consultation and in violation of principles of shared governance.”
The University also faced backlash from United Auto Workers Local 2324, the union representing more than 400 higher education staff at BU. Fifteen of its represented workers were laid off, and seven had their hours reduced, according to the union’s records.
Zachary Bos, president of the union, said BU did not notify the union in advance that it would be laying off employees.
“Our first communication, much to our shock, was the same information all the other members of the campus community got, which is to say the president’s email from [July 7],” he said. “Prior to that, our efforts to learn whether BU was contemplating layoffs were only met with denials or stonewalls.”
Bos said an advance notification would have prepared the union to support the affected staff. He added the union would have been able to address potential noncompliance with the workers’ contracts, such as if they were laid off based on retaliation or discrimination.
The union intends to demand a town hall meeting with all involved personnel, he said. It has also filed a formal request for information regarding the financial rationale behind the layoffs.
“BU thinks that it can get away with it because it uses workers as disposable and replaceable,” Bos said. “Disrespect is not what I thought our institutional values were all about.”
BU expressed in the July 7 letter that its decision was necessary. The University plans to transform it into its “most efficient and vital form” over the next few months.
“This is a day of loss for all of us. There is no way around this,” Gilliam wrote. “We know our community may need time to adjust to these difficult changes. Yet, it is also a necessary step in ensuring our future.”
