Colleges Face a Financial Reckoning. The University of Chicago Is Exhibit A.
The school that produced Milton Friedman and 34 other Nobel Prize-winning economists is struggling to manage its pocketbook.
The University of Chicago ran budget deficits for 14 years straight, spending big on new labs, dorms and technology to raise its profile and enrollment. Now it’s facing a financial reckoning.
Over the summer, university leaders said they needed to cut $100 million in expenses. They decided to slow tenure-track hiring, scale back new construction and pause admissions to nearly 20 Ph.D. programs for a year. They’ve been aggressively fundraising and soft launched a new capital campaign.