The University of Hartford is cutting $7 million from its $187 million operating budget this fiscal year, increasing full-time faculty teaching loads, freezing hiring and reducing its reliance on adjunct instructors, according to internal memos to the campus community obtained by the Hartford Business Journal and a written response from the university.
The reduction represents about 4% of the West Hartford university’s annual operating budget and is in response to declining undergraduate enrollment. Memos sent by President Lawrence P. Ward in June and August and by Provost Nancy LaGreca in July describe the measures, which the university said are part of a multiyear effort to align spending with enrollment and revenue.
“While this work is challenging, it is an important and healthy business practice,” the university said in a statement.
The centerpiece is a change to how much full-time faculty teach. A newly formed Budget Sustainability Task Force voted 11-0, with one abstention, to return faculty to the 24-credit-hour annual teaching load defined in the university’s Faculty Policy Manual, according to LaGreca’s July 23 memo. The Cabinet approved the recommendation.
Faculty currently teaching a 3-3 load, generally 18 credit hours a year, will teach 21 credit hours during a 2026-27 transition year before moving to the full 24-credit expectation in 2027-28. About half of UHart’s faculty currently teach below 24 credits, the university said.
LaGreca wrote that the academic measures account for approximately $2.1 million in adjunct savings and roughly $500,000 in stipend savings, or about 40% of the savings needed this fiscal year. The remainder will come from administration, staffing, business operations and other institutional spending.
The university said the change “lessens the need for more adjunct faculty at additional expense” over time, and that there are no layoffs within the full-time faculty.
Ward’s August memo outlines the broader package. Hiring remains paused, with new and vacant positions subject to additional review before being posted or refilled. Some vacancies will be held or eliminated. Newly hired non-exempt employees will work 37.5 hours per week rather than 40, and employer contributions to health savings and health reimbursement accounts end in January 2027. Operating-budget stipends not tied to a contract will be eliminated beginning in spring 2027.
Administrative positions have been consolidated, with voluntary pay reductions in process, the university said. A vacant associate provost position will not be filled, following earlier eliminations of the chief operating officer role and a reduction in the number of academic deans. Fall budget allocations were released at 80%, reflecting up to $2 million in additional operating savings.
An ongoing drop in enrollment is driving the cuts. Ward wrote that the preliminary fall 2026 outlook came in below budget projections, pressuring tuition, housing, dining and fee revenue, citing lower international enrollment, weaker-than-expected yield in several programs and intentional changes to scholarship strategy. Since 2015, traditional undergraduate enrollment has declined 19.1% while graduate enrollment rose 2.8%, an overall decline of about 13.9%.
The cuts follow several years of financial strain that included operating deficits, a bond covenant breach and a credit rating downgrade to speculative grade in 2023.
The university said it has been in full compliance with all covenants and debt service ratios since that error, with four straight years of compliance, and that S&P improved its outlook to stable in January. Subject to completion of this year’s audit, UHart anticipates reporting an increase in net assets of roughly $2 million, following an increase of about $700,000 in fiscal 2025. Its endowment exceeds $220 million.
UHart also pointed to recent investments, including more than 20 new academic programs, the $50 million Hursey Center for Advanced Engineering and Health Professions, a $2.4 million outdoor athletics complex and a $2.8 million dining venue both opening this fall, and $3 million in scholarship support from Stanley Black & Decker.
The university is separately preparing a $100 million fundraising campaign alongside a new five-year strategic plan, both reviewed by the Board of Regents this spring.
