Harvard Offers Buyouts to 1,600 Employees

Chronicle of Higher Education

Harvard University will offer buyouts to 1,600 workers, or almost 10 percent of its nonfaculty employees, to help deal with the loss last year of $8-billion from its endowment, the Bloomberg news agency reported.

In an e-mail message to workers this week, Marilyn Hausammann, vice president for human resources, said the offer would be made to employees age 55 and older, or to those who had worked for the university for more than 10 years.

Employees in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and in the Harvard Medical and Dental Schools, will receive their offers this month, and the rest will be made in March.

Harvard’s endowment helps pay for about a third of the university’s budget. Budget cuts and hiring freezes have already been announced as a result of the 22-percent loss in the endowment’s value. —Megan Eckstein