The University of Utah anticipates laying off as many as 855 staff members over the next nine months — news the flagship school confirmed comes after the university sought guidance from two national consulting firms.

The U. announced the changes in a campuswide message last week, though the school said staff in affected units were alerted earlier. Many employees pushed back, calling the reductions unnecessary and traumatic.

“Things are very, very difficult for many staff here at the U.,” said Leslie Francis, a distinguished professor of law and philosophy, during a recent Academic Senate meeting where the issue was raised.

The U.’s chapter of United Campus Workers instead suggested the school cull its top administrators’ salaries to save money, listing each in an Instagram post with a call to “CHOP FROM THE TOP!”

The staff cuts are the latest cost-saving measure the school has recently rolled out as it works to operate much leaner. That includes major cuts to retirement benefits for new employees and the closure of the U.’s satellite campus in Sandy.

Gary McArthur, the U.’s newly appointed chief financial officer, said the cuts are needed as the school navigates an uncertain future with anticipated enrollment declines by 2032. Already, he said, the U.’s expenses are outpacing revenues, and its operating margin has declined in the last few years.

That’s “a trajectory that is not sustainable over the long term,” the school said in its announcement.

The U. is currently on healthy financial footing, with state funding, investment income and other non-operating revenue making up the gap. McArthur presented an anticipated annual budget of $10.6 billion for fiscal 2027 to the school’s board of trustees last month.

But it’s better to prepare now, he said, than in crisis.

To figure out how to best weather the predicted storm, McArthur said the school brought in two consulting firms, McKinsey & Company and Huron Consulting Group, for “outside and honest analysis.”

“We knew they were going to be very helpful to us in this process, and that’s why we reached out to them,” McArthur told The Salt Lake Tribune.

Both are known for pushing staff cuts as a solution. In a book about McKinsey, one journalist who has long covered the firm said it may be “the single greatest legitimizer of mass layoffs than anyone, anywhere, at any time in modern history.”

The U. has paid the firms a combined $4.7 million for their analysis, a university spokesperson said. The U. previously paid $6 million to McKinsey as of January 2025; it’s unclear if that covered McKinsey’s latest costs.

Overall, the companies are supposed to help the U. become more efficient, a push that comes from President Taylor Randall, who has long called for “operational excellence” since he took the helm in fall 2021.

During the recent Academic Senate meeting, Randall said the latest staff cuts align with much-needed “modernization of the university,” including some IT and human resources systems that haven’t been updated in more than a decade.

In a statement, Randall added: “The University of Utah has never become stronger by standing still.”

Where are jobs being cut?

The layoffs are confined among a group of 5,700 operational staff members whose work the U. believes can be “consolidated, simplified or eliminated.”

None are faculty. University of Utah Health is also not included, but it’s expected to conduct a separate, parallel process, the school said in its announcement.

Overall, the U. has 47,000 employees. The 5,700 positions that could be affected make up about 12% of the total.

McArthur said other universities and colleges across the country have undergone a similar process, many also at the advice of Huron and McKinsey. Those have tended to result in cuts between 5% to 15% of staff.

That range has become a projection for the U., where between 285 and 855 staff positions could be eliminated, he said.

“We’re looking at what the best institutions do,” he said.

Some of the eliminated positions could come through retirements and natural attrition, including people opting to leave without backfilling those jobs. But layoffs are also likely, McArthur said.

Currently, the U. is in the first phase of its staffing process, looking at its HR and finance units. It wants both to become centralized as part of a “shared services” model, where academic colleges share resources instead of retaining their own. Academic advising has already shifted to that model.

In HR, for instance, the U. anticipates only needing about 300 staff members total. The school currently employs about 900 HR workers spread across different academic colleges and teams

Not all units will see cuts: The U. already streamlined its fundraising operations, for example, without announcing layoffs, said U. Chief Human Resources Officer Jeff Herring.

“The scope and timing will vary by function, and no final decisions have been made about the total number of positions that may be affected,” the U. noted.

The school has said that its policing staff, for instance, won’t see reductions.

How are the cuts being carried out?

The next phase will examine the school’s IT operations; communications and marketing teams; administrative support staff; real estate offices; and auxiliary services.

In each unit, staff will be interviewed about their work. The school will then determine how many positions are needed, and if there are cuts, staff can reapply for the limited amount of positions available.

Herring acknowledged it’s a difficult situation. “I’m very compassionate to that,” he said. “On a very human level, it impacts individuals.”

He also said he realizes that recent changes, including the retirement package adjustments, may feel “like they’re hitting at once.”

It’s all part of a process, though, to make sure the U. operates well now and “for a decade down the road,” he said.

Herring also said reductions in force are “normal processes” at universities. Over the last five years, for instance, the U. has reduced 475 positions prior to these cuts, averaging around 100 cuts per year.

Those come as research projects end or as offices close, such as when the U. closed its General Stores and Receiving supplies shop last year. All supply ordering is now done online.

“We promise to be as transparent, as humane, as empathetic, as inclusive as we can be,” Herring told the Academic Senate.

McArthur added that the school has been sharing information ahead of time in the hopes that no one is surprised. But he acknowledged the U. doesn’t have every answer at this point.

The U. anticipates concluding the process by the end of June 2027.

What comes next?

The U. said the reductions aren’t coming from outside legislative pressure or expectations.

“This has been the president’s initiative to be proactive,” said Troy D’Ambrosio, Randall’s chief of staff.

A list of “frequently asked questions” the U. put together also notes the changes are “not related” to the broader higher education budget cuts and reallocations the Legislature implemented last year. Through that, the U. was required to cut $19.6 million from 81 “inefficient” degrees and instead invest in higher demand fields.

But McArthur did say the Legislature has “told us they’re looking to give us less” in the coming years.

Under President Donald Trump, the federal government has also put a strain on higher education revenues, he said, with significant cuts to research funding, which the U. and its hospital system have long relied on.

Additionally, under the Trump-backed “Big Beautiful Bill,” many low-income U. Health patients lost Medicaid coverage, and hospitals largely have to pick up those costs. That’s contributed to a smaller revenue margin, McArthur said.

“The University of Utah faces some of the most significant challenges in its 176-year history,” the school noted in its announcement.

Overall, in 2025, the school’s operating margin was at 5.5%; this fiscal year, it’s expected to hit 5.3% — which amounts to a $25 million-dollar difference.

McArthur said maintaining healthy margins is critical for the U. Any money saved in the modernization efforts, he said, will instead go toward faculty and students.

That includes offering more faculty positions at a higher starting pay (above $85,000), more research support, boosting graduation rates and “continued development of a more fully residential campus,” the U. noted in its announcement, which has been a priority of Randall’s.

The university also plans to invest in a new budgeting platform, which will allow for easier data collection and more frequent budget reports, McArthur said.

He noted: “Every dollar and every hour we can redirect from unnecessary complexity is capacity we can put back into our mission of creating impact.”