Duke University Cut Hundreds of Millions Through Various Means in Response to Federal Cuts

Duke University Cut Hundreds of Millions Through Various Means in Response to Federal Cuts

Duke did the right thing here. Imagine how much schools like Harvard and Yale could trim if they wanted to do it.

The Associated Press reports:

Duke University cut $299 million through buyouts, building closures in response to federal cuts

Following his inauguration in January, U.S. President Donald Trump brought along a new team of advisers and a playbook for higher education. The administration unleashed a slew of demands on colleges and universities in what has been seen by higher education leaders as an “overreach” on academic freedom by the federal government.

At the forefront of top political adviser Stephen Miller, Trinity ’07, and Trump’s agenda was mandating universities axe diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, limit international student enrollment and decrease their reliance on federally funded research. The administration also changed student loan policies, cut Medicaid reimbursement rates and increased the tax rate universities would have to pay on their endowment.

For institutions like Duke that operate both a University and a Health System, the lapses in federal funding cut key revenue streams. In response, Duke enacted a $364 million cost-cutting program, becoming one of the first universities to trim its personnel pool amid the federal funding changes and one of the institutions with the largest budgetary cuts.

The program has produced $229 million in savings across Duke’s departments and schools for the fiscal year 2026 budget, according to a September Academic Council presentation by Executive Vice President Daniel Ennis and Rachel Satterfield, vice president for finance and treasurer. The goal, though, is to reduce its expense base by $350 million by 2030, which Duke aims to accomplish by saving an additional $47 million in each of the next two years, another $30 million in fiscal year 2029 and $11 million the year after. That leaves Duke with $364 million saved — $14 million above its initial target.

Here is how the program started this year.

In February the Trump administration sought to cap Facilities and Administrative reimbursement rates to universities for grants funded through institutions like the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation to 15%, from their current levels of around 60%. The directive faced legal challenges and is still blocked in the courts. The administration also called upon the funding agencies to terminate all grants related to diversity, equity and inclusion, freeze award money to certain universities at their discretion and decrease the number of grant opportunities available to researchers.

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