许多大学即将面临学费上涨和裁员

【中美创新时报2025年6月21日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）正当美国高校准备迎接可能是美国历史上规模最大的新生入学季之际，政治和经济力量却对高等教育预算造成了巨大冲击。学校正努力应对州政府支持微弱的上升和扑朔迷离的经济预测，而华盛顿的共和党人则在推行削减联邦预算，并威胁要增税。《纽约时报》记者艾伦·布林德对此作了下述报道。

美国中西部的公立大学正在提高外州学生的学费，佛罗里达州的学校也考虑自 2012 年以来首次采取同样的举措。

康奈尔大学和杜克大学等高校正在考虑裁员。明尼苏达大学正在裁减数百个工作岗位，尽管本科生学费飙升了7.5%。

正当美国高校准备迎接可能是美国历史上规模最大的新生入学季之际，政治和经济力量却对高等教育预算造成了巨大冲击。学校正努力应对州政府支持微弱的上升和扑朔迷离的经济预测，而华盛顿的共和党人则在推行削减联邦预算，并威胁要增税。

全美各地的学生和教职员工都将感受到压力。虽然具体后果因学校而异，但校方警告称，许多学生可能需要支付更多费用，教授可能会失业，课程可能会消失，支持服务也可能减少。

这场动荡并非局限于任何一所大学或学院，也并非局限于任何一个州。在密歇根州立大学董事会决定提高学费的前一天，加州州立大学一所距离太平洋仅几分钟车程的校区宣布将裁员。

美国教育委员会主席泰德·米切尔表示：“如果你是今年想上大学的学生或家庭，那么所有的数字都朝着错误的方向发展。”他将高等教育领导人的情绪描述为“阴暗但坚定”。

特朗普政府削减研究经费的举措正在从许多大学吸走资金，有时甚至高达数亿美元。但这只是导致高等教育财政危机的一个因素。与企业和家庭一样，大学也面临着更高的工资、物资、水电费和其他开支成本。

他们的收入来源并不总是能跟上步伐。在内布拉斯加州，州政府对大学系统的拨款将增加约0.6%，远低于校董会为应对通货膨胀而提出的3.5%的增幅。但校董们认为，这一增长是一个温和的胜利。

州长吉姆·皮伦是一名共和党人，他希望该州“有勇气说不，关注需要而不是想要的东西”，他最初敦促削减 2%。

“我们需要继续削减开支，并做出越来越艰难的选择，以确保财政纪律，”内布拉斯加大学校长杰弗里·P·戈尔德在周四投票决定削减开支并提高学费之前对校董们说。在林肯校区旗舰校区就读的学生将支付约5%的学费。

在邻近的堪萨斯州，该州六所公立大学中只有一所没有提议在下一学年提高学费。俄克拉荷马大学的领导也刚刚再次提高了学费。

白宫驳斥了部分大学管理人员的指控，即联邦政府应对学费上涨和其他预算变动负部分责任。

白宫发言人哈里森·菲尔兹在一份声明中表示：“任何学校将政府削减浪费、欺诈和滥用的政策当作替罪羊，以此来证明提高本已高得离谱的学费是合理的，这种做法是为了在政治上得分，并充实自己的金库，而辜负了美国学生的期望。”

他补充道：“如果这些高等教育机构真的想要降低成本，他们就应该削减教师过高的工资，并停止将钱浪费在对教育进步没有多大帮助的无用项目上。”

有些学校比其他学校更依赖联邦资金，尤其是研究机构，许多此类学校的领导在重新制定预算时都提到了政府的策略。但公立学校有时也会面临州议会的强烈抵制，近期通胀的上升也对校园财政提出了新的要求。

全国各地的大学领导有时会为学费上涨辩护，他们正确地指出，近年来学费一直保持相对稳定。另一些人则指出，他们提供的奖学金和助学金数量众多，这通常会使学费远低于标价，并表示许多学生最终支付的费用比过去要低。

在明尼苏达州，学生们将花费更多却获得更少的教育。

州领导层维持了对明尼苏达大学的稳定支持——考虑到通货膨胀，校方认为这一决定实际上是在削减预算。然而，人们普遍质疑，联邦政府资金的进一步减少会在多大程度上恶化该大学的财务前景。

双城校区的学费将至少上涨6.5%。但该校也在寻求削减7%的学费。学术部门已被要求拿出数百万美元的“重新分配”资金，这可能导致课程调整、法律图书馆资料减少等。超过350个工作岗位可能会被裁减。

“对我们明尼苏达州来说，这种削减开支还是新鲜事，”明尼苏达大学校长丽贝卡·坎宁安（Rebecca Cunningham）在周三的董事会会议上表示。“这很不幸，但我们并不孤单。”

事实并非如此。马里兰大学系统校长杰伊·A·珀曼本月在一段视频中直言不讳地告诉员工，各学院将在下一财年承担7%的经费削减。

珀曼说：“在所有校园里，我们不可能在不影响任何人的情况下实现 7% 的减税。”

私立大学对其财务状况的披露往往远少于公立大学，但类似的巨大压力迹象正在出现。

杜克大学寻求削减约 3.5 亿美元的经费，约占其预算的 10%。

与特朗普政府发生激烈冲突的哈佛大学正在紧急寻求捐赠，并一直在削减开支，部分原因是其数十亿美元的捐赠基金限制了其用途。同样拥有巨额捐赠基金的康奈尔大学领导在周三发布的一份题为“财政紧缩信息”的声明中描述了严峻的形势。

题图：杜克大学校长文森特·普莱斯表示，学校可能即将裁员。康奈尔·沃森/摄影：康奈尔·沃森

附原英文报道：

Tuition increases, layoffs are coming to a broad set of universities

By Alan Blinder New York Times,Updated June 20, 2025, 5:53 p.m.

Duke University President Vincent Price said that layoffs are likely on the horizon for the university. Cornell Watson/Photographer: Cornell Watson

Public universities in the Midwest are raising prices for out-of-state students, as Florida schools consider making the same move for the first time since 2012.

Cornell and Duke are among the colleges weighing layoffs. The University of Minnesota is cutting hundreds of jobs, even as undergraduate tuition soars as much as 7.5 percent.

Just as America’s colleges are preparing to welcome what could be the largest freshman class in the nation’s history, political and economic forces are unleashing havoc on higher education budgets. Schools are grappling with meager upticks in state support and topsy-turvy economic forecasts, and Republicans in Washington are pursuing federal budget cuts and threatening tax hikes.

Students and employees from coast to coast are poised to feel the squeeze. Although the exact consequences will vary by school, administrators are warning that many students may have to pay more, professors may lose their jobs, programs could vanish, and support services could shrink.

The turmoil is not limited to any one type of university or college, or any one state. A day before Michigan State University trustees opted for tuition increases, a California State University campus minutes from the Pacific Ocean announced that it was trimming its workforce.

“If you’re a student or family looking to go to college this year, all of the numbers are going in the wrong direction,” said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, who described the mood among higher education leaders as “dark but resolved.”

The Trump administration’s efforts to reduce research funding are siphoning cash from many campuses, sometimes by hundreds of millions of dollars. But that is just one factor contributing to higher education’s financial crunch. Colleges, like businesses and households, are facing greater costs for wages, supplies, utilities, and other expenses.

Their income sources are not always keeping pace. In Nebraska, the state government’s contribution to the university system will rise roughly 0.6 percent, far below the 3.5 percent increase that the Board of Regents had sought to account for inflation. But regents saw the increase as a modest victory.

Governor Jim Pillen, a Republican who wanted the state to have “the courage to say no, and to focus on needs, not wants,” had originally urged a 2 percent reduction.

“We will need to continue to reduce spending and make increasingly difficult choices to ensure fiscal discipline,” Jeffrey P. Gold, the University of Nebraska’s president, told regents before a vote Thursday to impose cuts and increase tuition. Students who enroll at the flagship campus in Lincoln are poised to pay about 5 percent more.

In neighboring Kansas, only one of the state’s six public universities did not propose a tuition increase for the coming school year. And University of Oklahoma leaders just raised tuition again, too.

The White House rejected accusations from some college administrators that the federal government is partly to blame for tuition increases and other budget moves.

“Any school that scapegoats the administration’s policies of cutting waste, fraud and abuse to justify raising already astronomical tuition costs is failing American students in an effort to score political points and fatten its coffers,” Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement.

He added: “If these higher education institutions were serious about lowering costs, they would cut the bloated salaries of their faculty and stop wasting money on useless programs that do little to advance education.”

Some schools are more reliant than others on federal money, especially research institutions, and leaders on many of those campuses have cited the administration’s tactics as they have reworked their budgets. But public institutions are also sometimes facing significant resistance in statehouses, and recent rises in inflation have put new demands on campus finances.

College leaders across the country have sometimes sought to defend new tuition increases by noting correctly that their prices had stayed relatively steady in recent years. Others point to the number of scholarships and grants they offer, which routinely drive costs well south of the sticker price, and say that many students are ultimately paying less than in the past.

In Minnesota, students are set to pay more for less.

State leaders maintained stable support for the University of Minnesota — a decision that university officials considered an effective budget cut, given inflation. And questions are swirling over how much additional declines in federal money could worsen the university’s financial outlook.

Tuition at the Twin Cities campus will rise by at least 6.5 percent. But the university is also pursuing cuts of 7 percent. Academic units have been asked to come up with millions of dollars in “reallocations” that could lead to program changes and fewer materials in the Law Library, among other things. More than 350 jobs could be eliminated.

“Making these kinds of cuts here is new to us in Minnesota,” Rebecca Cunningham, the university’s president, said during a board meeting Wednesday. “It is unfortunate, but indeed we are not alone.”

They are not. The University System of Maryland’s chancellor, Jay A. Perman, bluntly told employees in a video this month that the schools would absorb a 7 percent cut for the coming fiscal year.

“A 7 percent cut simply can’t be achieved on every campus in a way that doesn’t touch any of our people,” Perman said.

Private universities often say far less about their finances than public institutions, but similar signs of immense strain are emerging.

Duke University is seeking about $350 million in cuts, amounting to roughly 10 percent of its budget.

Harvard University, which has clashed bitterly with the Trump administration, is urgently seeking contributions from donors and has been making cuts, partly because billions of dollars in its endowment have restricted uses. And in a statement Wednesday ominously titled “a message on financial austerity,” leaders at Cornell, which also has a substantial endowment, described a dire landscape.