In March, the Princeton University Board of Trustees voted to approve the University operating budget for the 2025–2026 fiscal year. For the first time in three years, the total operating budget was not shared in this announcement. Now, a letter from Provost Jennifer Rexford to the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) has revealed the total operating budget to be $3.5 billion — nearly a half billion increase from last year’s budget.
Accompanying this letter is the CPUC Report of the Priorities Committee to the President, with an introductory letter from Rexford to University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83, containing a set of recommendations for budget spending.
According to the report, the Priorities Committee, led by the University Provost, is a charter committee of the CPUC that “prepares and recommends the University’s operating budget to the President and Board of Trustees each year.”
In the letter to Eisgruber, Rexford explained that much of the committee’s work in analyzing the approved budget was done before the federal government announced it would pause $210 million worth of grants to the University. Rexford also noted that the “review and awarding of new grants have slowed considerably” in recent months.
In addition to the suspension and slowing of research grants, Rexford cited “recent economic volatility, tariff hikes, and a possible increase to the tax on university endowments,” as factors that could negatively impact the University’s operating budget this coming year and in the future.
Rexford specifically pointed to the suspension of the nearly 100 federal grants and the University hiring freeze as factors that are actively being taken into consideration by the Priorities Committee.
“As federal research funding decreases (due to suspended and terminated grants, as well as fewer new grants), we anticipate lower research expenses as faculty members adjust their research activities. We also expect that covering a higher portion of these research expenses may be offset in part by other sources available at the faculty, departmental, and central levels in the short term,” Rexford wrote.
“While not sustainable for the long term, this shift in funding sources is necessary to respond to the abrupt decrease in federal funding while supporting our academic research mission, as well as our students, researchers, and faculty,” she explained.
In regards to the hiring freeze, Rexford wrote, “We also recently imposed significant limits on faculty and staff hiring, and on non-personnel expenses in both administrative and academic units. These decisions will also lower operating expenditures in the year ahead.”
In the press release that announced the Board of Trustees’ approval of the FY 2025-26 budget, the budget was said to be subject to change “due to uncertainty about federally sponsored research funding,” which covers almost one-fifth of Princeton’s overall annual spending.
In the report, the committee recommended a 4.5 percent increase to undergraduate student charges, the same increase that was approved for this year’s fees. This increase accompanies an expected 5,800 undergraduate population for next year, and will preserve the University’s status as one of the cheapest “Ivy-Plus” universities, the report explained.
Additionally, the committee will only recommend a 4.75 percent and 3.5 percent increase in faculty and staff salary pools respectively, markedly different from last year’s recommendation of 5.8 percent and 4.85 percent. Employment Cost Index growth for private civilian workers, which measures salary and wage growth across the country, stood at 3.9 percent this fall, below the 4.6 percent the year before.
Graduate student stipends are also slated for a more modest increase. The committee, working with the Graduate School, has recommended a 3.2 percent bump — down from 4.25 percent going into this year and 5.0 percent increase going into FY2024. The report notes that the increase will “ensure that Princeton maintains its competitive stipend position and help graduate students continue to meet changes in local costs of living.”
The most substantial funding increases will go toward the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), increasing by 9.0 percent from $232 million to $252.9 million. PPPL laid off dozens of technicians and researchers in March, in part “to ensure that PPPL operates within its available and projected budgets.”
The second largest change will be for undergraduate scholarships, where the committee recommended an increase of 8.0 percent from $282.8 million to $305.5 million.
However, these numbers are still subject to change, Rexford noted in the letter. Currently, there is a proposed presidential budget that could threaten even more federal funding to the University.
“We will inform the Board about our updated budget projections as we gain a better understanding of the federal research funding landscape, any endowment tax increase, and the results of our efforts to curb spending. Next fall’s Priorities Committee will analyze the changes in the projected FY26 operating budget as we continue budget planning for the future,” Rexford wrote.
Luke Grippo is a senior News writer and Features contributor for the ‘Prince.’ He is from South Jersey and usually covers University politics, on a national, regional, and local scale.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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