College Anticipates 15 Percent Budget Cut

Leo Kamin ’25 Managing News Editor

All college departments and divisions have been asked to cut their budgets by 15 percent for the 2024 fiscal year, which begins on July 1, 2023, in the wake of a decrease in the college’s endowment and amid persistently high inflation. This change comes despite a 4.9 increase to the comprehensive fee announced Tuesday. There will be no layoffs for staff and no changes to the college’s financial aid policy, President Michael Elliott said.

Alongside the cuts, the college will implement a hiring freeze for all staff for the next fiscal year, even as the college struggles with staff shortages. Hiring

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of new faculty will continue as usual.

In interviews with The Student, Elliott and Provost and Dean of Faculty Catherine Epstein emphasized that the college’s goal was to minimize the impact of cuts on student life. Elliott nonetheless said that the budget cuts would have to prompt a broader “culture shift” at the college.

“Amherst has been a place where we’ve had the capacity over the last five to 10 years to say yes to most new ideas,” he said. “In a very short period of time, we’re having to shift to a mindset where the answer to most new ideas is either going to be ‘no’ or ‘later.’”

Epstein said that the propo- sed cuts have been instituted to ensure that staff and faculty can receive raises amid increased costs of living. “That’s a priority of the college, particularly right now, because faculty and staff went through the pandemic,” she said.

Campus Corners: Caelen McQuilkin ’24E features a new timeline in the Queer Resource Center and speaks with staff about their thoughts on it.

The budget process remains in its early stages. Academic departments submitted their proposed reduced budgets to Epstein on March 1, but many other non-academic departments have not yet finalized their proposals.

Following these initial attempts to find room in the budget, there will be a negotiation process between the President’s office and individual departments culminating in a final budget proposal to the Board of

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Trustees in May.

Elliott said that the 15 percent number was a starting point in the process, not an iron law. “It is probably not going to be 15 percent across the board,” he said. “But it’s a good way to start asking the questions.”

Elliott said that his office was working to ensure that the cuts do not have a large impact on the student experience. “Anything that involves a large number of students we’ll be looking at really carefully,” he said. “We’ll try to understand the trade-offs.”

Epstein similarly said that she believed that “there are things that could be cut that hopefully won’t be noticed all that much by their absence.”

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Pay Up: Zane Khiry ’25 argues that, in order to live up to its motto, "Terras Irradient," the college should contribute more money to the town of Amherst.

The project, titled “A Racial History of Amherst College,” was introduced in August 2020 as part of former President Biddy Martin’s anti-racism plan. In the presentation, Jirik outlined highlights of his research, which so far has uncovered the history of Indigenous removal from the lands Amherst occupies and the ties of individual donors to slavery.

In addition to hiring Jirik to direct the project, the college also formed a Steering Committee, co-chaired by Provost and Dean of the Faculty Catherine Epstein and Head of the Archives and Special Collections Mike Kelly. It is staffed by faculty members, students, an external expert, and a representative from the Offices of Advancement; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; and Student Affairs.

Jirik began by explaining what he referred to as the “first phase” of the research project, which only

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The Lilac x The Student: In this first installment of The Lilac x The Student features “Nothing Entire,” a poem by Joe Sweeney ’25.