The University’s Budget and Ambitions
Dear Colleagues,
We are proud to lead this institution. Deep devotion to academics and ideas has been the wellspring of the University’s success and will continue to drive our decisions. The University of Chicago is home to world-class research across a breadth of disciplines, a premier destination for a liberal arts education, a training ground for the next generation of scholars and professionals, and a proving ground for new ideas. Ensuring our continued excellence in these areas—as well as emerging frontiers—requires both thoughtful investment in our highest ambitions and purposeful stewardship of our resources.
As many of you know, the University made significant investments over a number of years and chose to operate with a structural budget deficit to allow us to advance rapidly. Our investment during a period of low interest rates enabled us to do even more to attract and retain an exceptional caliber of students, faculty, and staff, fostering a virtuous cycle of eminence. Today, with a stronger academic base, we have determined that it is the right time to address this structural deficit and plan our next stage of growth. This fall, we will seek input on a plan for the coming years to meet our twin goals of bringing the deficit down while continuing to invest in enduring and emerging areas. We need to be disciplined in our spending, strategic in our investments, and entrepreneurial in seeking support to meet our mission.
Near-term deficit mitigation
As we partner across the University to develop and implement a multi-year plan of prioritization and investment, we need to pause some activities, including staff hiring, to ensure that resources are aligned with those priorities. This Autumn Quarter staff hiring freeze will be implemented at the local level, drawing on the crucial insights of leaders of schools, divisions, and units. Additional details are available here. In the coming month, we will also seek input on other short-term measures to slow spending growth, giving all levels of the University the space and flexibility to develop longer-term strategies.
Prioritizing areas of growth and investment
The University of Chicago has always made big bets, rather than waiting for others to lead in establishing and developing fields. That entrepreneurial spirit and intellectual innovation are at the heart of who we are and our outsized contributions to knowledge and society. One of our current initiatives follows the recommendations of a faculty committee to make distinctive investments in climate and energy; other exciting avenues for pursuing novel inquiry are in development.
In trying bold new things, it is inherent that some ideas bear fruit for years to come, others run their course, and still others do not develop as hoped. Positioning ourselves to be ready to invest in our next set of priorities requires perennial examination of our last set of investments. This fall, in consultation with deans, officers, and a group of faculty advisors, we will be examining our activities and affiliations to assess whether to reinvest, pause, or sunset each.
Expanding support for our work
Being financially positioned for ongoing renewal and investment in our mission requires building support for our work and adapting our approach to advance scholarship to meet society’s needs and provide transformative education to new generations of students. Work is already underway and will continue throughout the year. Examples of areas of opportunity to explore include:
1) Increasing the size of our sponsored research portfolios and the effective use of those resources, as well as developing new public and private partnerships and support for entrepreneurial research activities.
2) Attracting new populations to our existing degrees, including further developing joint graduate degrees and expanding our undergraduate+graduate degree population.
3) Expanding our non-degree offerings, both in Chicago and in hybrid or remote format.
4) More fully utilizing campus spaces year-round, from Summer and September programming to use of our convening spaces by external partners.
Your involvement is vital
We are enlisting faculty, staff, and leaders across the University to identify the most promising areas for the future, but also those areas where we should reevaluate our efforts. Ours is a community of generative thinkers, and we encourage you to share ideas by emailing budgetandambitions@uchicago.edu. We will continue to seek input and to keep you apprised of progress on each of these near- and longer-term dimensions. For more information visit this link—it will be updated regularly.
The aspirations of the people who make up our university are unbounded. Members of this community, past and present, are the foundation of our success, and together we are responsible for ensuring the durability of our collective enterprise. Fortunately, we are poised to build from a position of enviably broad eminence and unsurpassed intellectual capital.
Sincerely,
Paul
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A. Paul Alivisatos
President, University of Chicago
Kate
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Katherine Baicker
Provost, University of Chicago