Alongside research institutions around the U.S., Notre Dame has announced a hiring freeze of research staff. Photo by University of Notre Dame.

News Release

NOTRE DAME — St. Joseph County’s largest employer, Notre Dame, announced Friday, Feb. 7, it is pausing non-teaching staff hires due to recent federal activity.

The university said in a letter to community members it was tracking policy changes coming to federal agencies by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficency, or DOGE. It cites smaller reimbursements for grants by the National Institute of Health, and the cancellation of many other grants as considerations in the hiring pause.

Also mentioned in the email is a bill filed by Texas Republican Rep. Troy Rehls, that would increase excise taxes on private university endowments from 1.4% to the corporate rate of 21%.

Notre Dame reported an endowment amount of $20.1 billion in the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Only non-teaching positions, according to the university, will be affected, while critical positions will be reviewed when necessary. The email says the university is asking departments to reduce their budgets as much as 5%. This will be if “the financial impact of government actions should be significantly more dramatic,” the email reads.

The message is signed by president Rev. Robert Dowd, executive vice president Shannon Cullinan and provost John McGreevy.

Hiring freeze announcements are being made by an ever-greater amount of research institutions, as universities around the county withdraw acceptance letters to researchers and make graduate science program cutbacks. Smaller reimbursements from the NIH, in turn, are a result of its own budget cuts.

While Notre Dame did not mention if graduate programs would be cut, it did say the institution was “in communication with graduate students and postdoctoral scholars who may be impacted by the reduction in research funding.”