Princeton University Fires 43 Employees as It Cuts $170 Million

By Oliver Staley

Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Princeton University has dismissed 43 non-faculty employees and reduced the hours of 18 others this year as it cuts its budget by $170 million over two years because of endowment losses.

The number of jobs eliminated is lower than the school’s administration expected because 145 employees accepted a buyout, the university, based in Princeton, New Jersey, said today in a statement on its Web Site. The job cuts and other reductions in salary expenses will save about $15 million annually, the school said.

Princeton’s endowment, which is tied for the third-largest in higher education with Stanford University, fell 23 percent to $12.6 billion in the fiscal year that ended June 30. Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which had a 27 percent endowment loss, dismissed 275 employees in the first six months of the year. Stanford, near Palo Alto, California, fired 412 employees through Aug. 31 after a 27 percent decline in its investments.

Princeton, founded in 1746, is tied with Harvard as the best university in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report. Graduates include Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the U.S., and Supreme Court justices Samuel Alito and Sonya Sotomayor.

To contact the reporter on this story: Oliver Staley in New York at ostaley@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 29, 2009 18:07 EDT

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