On April 24, 2026, Reed’s Budget Realignment council agreed to a $4 million reduction in Reed College’s budget. Vice presidents and deans were told to collectively cut the overall budget and discuss the parts of each office’s budget that they believed could be reduced. In order to increase flexibility, they aimed to find an additional 10% to potentially cut on top of the $4 million. All of the offices managed to overshoot the 110% in their submissions, totaling $4,414,539 in proposed cuts. The council then advised President Audrey Bilger, who largely followed their recommendations and decided upon the final cuts in mid-April. Then, the vice presidents and deans evaluated the excess of proposals, decided which ones to keep and which to exclude, so that they can realign the budget back to 100% from 110%. The goal is for 60% of the reductions to take effect by 2027, and 100% by 2028.
On the front of Admissions and Financial Aid, former Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Milyon Trulove submitted $37,288, citing a reduction of redundant external modeling and other unspecified areas. Modeling is generally used as a tool for admissions to predict enrollment statistics of students.
Next, former Vice President for Institutional Diversity Phyllis Esposito cut $64,500 from the Office of Institutional Diversity (OID) budget. The cuts came from programming for events, honorariums (payments for services like speeches), as well as learning opportunities and communicators for the faculty on OID values. The Admission and OID budget cuts combined account for approximately 2.3% of the budget reduction, by far the smallest portion.
Hieu Nguyen, the Vice President for Advancement and College Relations, proposed a $338,481 cut. This would come from reducing travel for the representatives for Reed, minimizing outreach efforts through printing and postage, limiting the publication of the Reed College magazine to two times per year, cutting costs for tent services and programs during Commencement, and a reduced budget for Earth Day events. Cuts to communications—both strategic communications & marketing and outreach to alumni/parents—largely came from the money allocated to professional development, software, as well as operating supplies and services. In addition, the budget for the Center of Life Beyond Reed would be reduced in operating fees and services, professional development, and fees for membership and dues. Through the Advancement department as a whole, a part of the cut comes from unused student wages in Conference and Event Planning, but the student wages reduced from the department of Alumni Relations, Parent Engagement, and Strategic Communications & Marketing are not noted to be unused.
Karnell McConnell-Black, the Vice President for Student Life, reduced $495,915 from the budget through unused student wages from tutoring services, Judicial Board, Restorative Practice Team, Disability and Accessibility Resources, Community Safety, Title IX, and other areas. Cuts for staff wages would be made by eliminating the 12-month Area Coordinator role, an on-call nurse practitioner, and part-time staff wages from International Student Services (ISS). Accumulated salary budget savings from staff turnovers are accounted for in the budget. Still, Residence Life would have three less House Advisers, and the Health and Counseling Center would align inventory to current use, which would lower the quantity of Reed’s purchases of over-the-counter medications. Athletic programs would reduce budget for what was determined to be low-impact enrichment programs, and expenses for intramural sports. Travel funds that were left unused would be reduced. The budgets for flexible student support and professional development have been noted to be reduced. Community Safety and Title IX would reduce spending for subscription services and development of professionals, and ISS operating expenditures like postage.
Kathy Oleson, the Dean of the Faculty, put forward a reduction of $867,008. This would include reducing the Full Time Equivalents (FTE) for staff in a support position from 40 hours a week to 32 hours a week, reducing their full time working hours by one fifth. The faculty admin coordinator position will be eliminated upon retirement, as well as 3.8 positions from Information Technology and the Library based on vacancies. Under the new definition of FTE, this would mean a total of three non-support staff and one support staff for IT and the Library. Other than salaries, the reduction would come from a five percent deduction from operating budgets (not accounting for salary) and software subscriptions for operating costs.
Oleson cut costs for academics to total $1,642,738, and applied the same five percent reduction for operating budgets. Six positions among academic faculty would be reduced, and would occur with visiting faculty. Final decisions for eliminations would be determined by the Committee of Academic Policy and Planning, and according to the September 18 Faculty Beat, short and long term changes still are likely to come. Funds for Hum 411 (Senior Symposium) would be reduced, although this did not happen in the ‘26–’27 academic year. Operating costs for an unspecified academic department would be reduced from the budget, but this reduction would be replaced instead by Reed’s endowment. French students may have noticed one less French language scholar this year. This is also a result of the budget cut, and this correlates with a gradual decline of employment in the French department at Reed going from five faculty members to three over the last ten years.
Finally, Vice President of Finance and Treasurer Lynn Valenter cut $968,609. This partially comes from an open office position, six vacant custodial and maintenance positions, and unused student and part-time wages. Other cuts from Facilities consist of reduction of costs for repairs, routine and deferred maintenance, and training resources for personnel. For the Business Office, Human Resources, Institutional Research, and Treasurer, there will be a reduction in professional development, operating supplies, fees, and services. The same would apply for the Mailroom and Print Services.
A major concern for the budget cuts were the effects on student wages. The wording for the wages being removed was ‘unused,’ except for Alumni Relations, Parent Engagement, and Strategic Communications & Marketing. Therefore, student wages will likely not be impacted much if student work and hours stay at the status quo.
As noted in the September 18 Faculty Beat, Reed has been facing a loss in net tuition revenue as enrollment decreases and the discount rate for tuition increases, although retention rates for students have seen an upward trend. Still, Reed faces the federal threat of its tax exempt status being revoked. Reed has managed to stay above the projected loss for previous budgets. But Reed’s operation costs are rising more than ever; the use of endowment funds for operating costs continue to rise consistently.