Yale Predicts 300 Layoffs

Yale predicts it could lay off as many as 300 employees, the Yale Daily News reports. The school calculates it needs to eliminate 500 to 600 positions altogether but expects attrition and natural turnover to account for 300 to 500. The number for layoffs is still an estimate, and it will be up to individual departments to determine how personnel reductions are handled.

Yale also promises to double severance benefits from one week of pay per year of service to two weeks per year of service. These employees will be guaranteed at least four weeks of pay, and no one will receive more than 52.

The boost to severance benefits means the University will not immediately see the savings from the layoffs, Provost Peter Salovey explained. But it still helps, he said, because the budget gap resulting from the endowment's 25 percent plunge will widen over time.

As for fiscal year 2010, the University-ordered 7.5 percent cuts in staff and non-personnel costs will save an additional $37 million on top of the cost-cutting measures announced in December. Still, Yale still has not balanced the entirety of its $100 million budget deficit for fiscal year 2010.