U. of C. freezes Ph.D. admissions to most humanities programs | Evening Digest | hpherald.com
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The University of Chicago's sign at Blackstone Avenue and the Midway Plaisance, June 2020.
Courtesy of the University of Chicago
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The University of Chicago's sign at Blackstone Avenue and the Midway Plaisance, June 2020.
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The University of Chicago will pause or scale back graduate admissions in more than a dozen programs next year as the school confronts what administrators have called “very real budget challenges.”<br>According to an August 20 email obtained by the Herald from Deborah Nelson, Dean of the Division of the Arts and Humanities, Ph.D. admissions in nearly all of its humanities departments, including English language and literature, classics, art history and linguistics, will be suspended for the 2026-2027 academic year. The U. of C. has since said that only philosophy and music composition will continue to admit new students in the division. Admissions will also be paused in the Crown School of Social Work, the Harris School of Public Policy and several doctoral programs in the Division of the Social Sciences, including anthropology and political economy.<br>In a different email sent to faculty and students eight days earlier, Nelson wrote that the university had to be cautious about its long-term commitments amid “uncertainty and evolving fiscal realities.”
“To be anything but cautious … would be irresponsible to both those students and our long-term health,” Nelson wrote. “At the same time, I also want to make sure we can continue our important and field-defining work in ways where we have structural, evidence-based strengths.”<br>While the August 12 email described some pauses to programs and reductions to others, the follow-up email from Nelson the next week confirmed that nearly all of the humanities departments would halt admissions for a year while faculty leaders review programs and finances. Nelson wrote that most department chairs supported a “broader pause for the division so we can spend time this coming year to collectively assess and better navigate the challenges we face.”<br>The pause, Nelson wrote, will not affect current and incoming students, whose funding and support remain unchanged.<br>University officials say that the admissions freeze is part of a broader effort to weather mounting financial pressures, including federal cuts to research support. At an April budget town hall, university leaders warned that changes to federal grants, immigration policy and tariffs forced them to revise a four-year plan to close the university’s $288 million deficit.<br>They cited the loss of dozens of federal research grants, steep cuts to “indirect cost” reimbursements – money that helps cover lab facilities and equipment – and the sudden cancellation of visas for seven international students. They also noted that expectations for the endowment’s investment income had dropped due to steep declines in the U.S. stock and bond markets earlier this year.<br>University officials have said the recent changes are part of a wider effort to prepare for financial headwinds. In May, Provost Katherine Baicker warned faculty via email that the school faces “substantial additional financial risk,” noting that deans and officers were asked to hold total compensation flat and reduce non-personnel spending by 10%.<br>She also noted that U. of C. administrators were developing a “range of budget scenarios.”
“Our focus in these scenarios is to preserve financial sustainability by identifying significant additional spending reductions while reinforcing our core strengths and continuing to invest in key areas for our future,” Baicker wrote.<br>Some faculty members said the rollout of these changes has been chaotic and left staff and students uncertain about the future of their programs.<br>Andrew Ollett, an associate professor in the Department of South Asian Languages who teaches Sanskrit, said the change is a “major cause of concern” for him because most of his advanced students are graduate-level.<br>“We are moving away from...