Amid Financial Uncertainty, UVM Announces Hiring Freeze

The University of Vermont on Wednesday announced an immediate hiring freeze, blaming expected funding cuts and continuing uncertainty in Washington, D.C.

The decision comes amid financial difficulties at the state’s public land-grant university. Separate budget cuts of 1 to 3 percent in academic and administrative units are expected be announced in the next month or so, according to Richard Cate, the school’s vice president of finance and administration.

Wednesday’s memo to the campus community said that job offers to all of UVM’s long-term faculty, staff and post-doctoral positions will be halted immediately for 60 days.

Verbal or written job offers that have already been extended for open positions will be honored, the memo said. Certain critical positions will be exempt from the freeze.

“This is a difficult but necessary step that will preserve our flexibility and improve our ability, to the extent possible, to respond to the likelihood of change,” the message said.

The Trump administration has taken aim at grant funding, including major programs such as the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation.

The cancellations could hit UVM hard. The school has made grant-funded research a centerpiece of its financial strategy for the last several years. Just last month, UVM attained sought-after R1 research status. The school takes in more than $250 million annually in federal grants and program support.

Faculty have said UVM’s programs would suffer under a National Institutes of Health proposal, issued February 7, to cut reimbursement of indirect costs, such as libraries, labs and administration.

But some of the directives from D.C. have changed unexpectedly, creating an overall environment of uncertainty for institutions of higher education.

“We’re getting different types of communication from different agencies, and right now, it’s all tied up in the courts,” Cate said in an interview on Wednesday. However, “it’s obvious that there is an intent to drastically reduce it one way or another.”

Cate said it’s unclear how many of UVM’s prospective hires could be affected by the freeze. Officials are examining each job opening.

“If, for instance, we were in the midst of hiring a faculty member that we need to teach students next year, that one will probably proceed,” Cate said. “It will be position-by-position.”

Other universities around the U.S. are instituting — or considering — similar hiring freezes, citing the uncertainty about grant funding and possible changes to tax legislation that could affect endowment income.

“We’re all in the same situation, so the responses have been pretty similar,” Cate said.

Even before the Trump administration started issuing grant-related directives, UVM was struggling to improve its financial footing. Facing a $10 million deficit in its $940 million operating budget, trustees raised tuition 2 percent for in-state students and 4.5 percent for those from out-of-state in October, and pledged to look for other ways to cut costs. It was the first tuition increase for in-staters since 2019.

In January, as UVM faced a nearly 20 percent increase in health insurance costs for employees, Cate asked academic and administrative departments to look for ways they could cut 1 to 3 percent from their budgets, if needed.

On Wednesday, he said he had determined those cuts would indeed be needed, though he added it’s too early to say where they will happen. Enrollment for next year looks strong and is expected to meet targets, he added.

The hiring freeze will not affect UVM’s search for a new president, Cate said. UVM’s Division of Strategic Communications said last week that a finalist candidate for that position will interview on campus, with no details about when.