Syracuse University is staring down its first budget deficit in years after missing enrollment targets for the upcoming fall semester, Chancellor J. Michael Haynie told faculty and staff Thursday.
Haynie didn’t disclose how big the shortfall might be. But he made clear the financial hit would be real. “Because undergraduate tuition is the University’s primary source of revenue, the Fall 2026 enrollment shortfall carries real financial consequences,” Haynie said in a message obtained by local media. He added that Syracuse had “not experienced” such a deficit “in quite some time.” As the university heads into the next academic year, it is “actively engaging” its committed first-year students and working across units to develop what it called “entrepreneurial recruitment strategies.” Haynie offered little other detail on how Syracuse might manage the expected fiscal 2027 deficit beyond those recruitment efforts.
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The private nonprofit in New York has so far avoided the deep cuts and layoffs hitting many of its peers across the higher education world, many of which have slashed their workforce to cope with budget deficits. But demographic pressures — including the long-expected decline in the population of traditional-aged students — and a drop in international students are starting to weigh on its finances. Haynie also attributed the decline in international applications to the Trump administration’s efforts to tighten student visa programs. He framed the coming deficit as part of a wider trend: enrollment volatility is now the “new normal,” he said. “Competition for students is now more intense than at any time in modern U.S. history,” Haynie said.
Syracuse’s fall 2024 enrollment fell 3.5% year over year, according to university data. International undergraduates made up just 5% of the entering class, down from 12% two years earlier. The university also missed its master’s enrollment target by 41 students, largely because fewer foreign students enrolled, former Chancellor Kent Syverud said in September. “Many of our peers are running serious deficits and are experiencing deep budget cuts and large-scale layoffs,” Syverud said then. “That is not the story here, although it’s not a happy story entirely here either.”
“It would be hubris to say that we’re doing better than them because we’re smarter or better,” Syverud said at the time, referring to peers facing deficits and layoffs.
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Despite the dip, Syracuse’s fiscal 2025 surplus increased 4.7% to $299.3 million. The university has also taken steps to cut costs: it plans to eliminate 93 academic programs with low or no enrollment and offered early retirement to about 175 long-serving faculty members this spring. The program eliminations were announced by Provost Lois Agnew, who said the move would make the university “more focused, more distinctive and more aligned with student demand.” The early retirement packages were offered a couple of weeks later to faculty who had worked for the university for at least 35 years or who teach in programs slated for closure or that have low enrollment.
Total fall 2024 enrollment was 22,589, down 1.6% from the prior year but still above levels from a few years ago. The coming deficit will hit in fiscal 2027.
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Haynie gave few specifics on how Syracuse would close the gap beyond trying to grow enrollment. “This is a moment for urgency and purpose — not panic,” he told employees. He noted that international applications are down “significantly” because of visa difficulties, geopolitical pressures, and federal policy disruptions. The university is “actively engaging” its committed first-year students and developing what it called “entrepreneurial recruitment strategies.” He sought to assure the university’s workforce that Syracuse at least is in good company among other institutions facing similar headwinds.
“In conversations with presidents and chancellors at peer institutions nationwide, I hear the same themes: enrollment volatility is widespread, unpredictable and the ‘new normal’ for even strong, well-resourced universities,” Haynie said.
