The University of Chicago’s Division of the Arts & Humanities is preparing for a significant reorganization to cut administrative costs, with proposed changes expected to be presented to Provost Katherine Baicker by late August.

Citing new federal policies and shifts in the “underlying financial models” for higher education, the division is considering consolidating its 15 departments into eight, reducing language instruction, and establishing minimum class and program sizes.

“The status quo is not an option,” Deborah Nelson, dean of the Division of the Arts & Humanities, wrote to division faculty in a June 18 email reviewed by the Maroon. She added that, without changes, the division risked becoming “a pale, indecipherable version of what we once aspired to be.” 

In Nelson’s email, she announced she had formed five working groups the previous week, made up of 40 members of the division’s faculty and staff. She tasked the groups with drafting recommendation reports on how to “envision new kinds of structures and organization” for College teaching, divisional structure, language instruction, master’s programs, and Ph.D. programs, respectively. Instructional faculty and department administrators were not included in the groups.

Nelson wrote that Baicker had asked “all units” to propose changes by the end of August “that can be enacted in academic year 2026-2027.” 

Daisy Delogu, the Howard L. Willett professor of French literature and a member of the Ph.D. working group, told the Maroon members expressed uncertainty about whether other divisions had received similar instructions. A UChicago spokesperson confirmed that every school and division within the University is undergoing a similar process.

“This spring and summer, academic leaders across every school and division have been working with faculty and other colleagues to make timely strategic plans for this academic year and years to come. This process will be ongoing throughout the summer to inform decisions that will be made in the fall and beyond,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement to the Maroon. 

Some faculty are distressed by the proposed changes. “Someone said to me they felt like a ‘DOGE’ had come to the University of Chicago,” Delogu said, referring to the federal Department of Government Efficiency.

Financial pressures driving the reorganization efforts include a “proposed endowment tax,” “policies around international students,” and “changes to graduate student loans” from President Donald Trump’s administration, Nelson wrote. She also expressed concern about “volatility in the American economy, the impact of a recession, and its cascading effects on philanthropy.” 

Under Trump’s recently passed tax and spending legislation, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the University will face the reduction or elimination of several student loan programs, although its endowment tax rate will remain the same at 1.4 percent. 

The Trump administration has also slashed National Institutes of Health, National Endowment for the Humanities, and National Science Foundation grant funding to UChicago. In May, Baicker reported during a faculty budget town hall that the current impact was between $10–15 million but could grow to as much as $40 million over the next year. The policies are part of a wave of threats and funding cuts to elite universities.

The Department of State and the Department of Justice have threatened international students at UChicago and elsewhere, cancelling and later restoring student visas and announcing investigations into the University’s international student population. 

Along with these new financial challenges, the University is still dealing with the effects of the $221 million deficit it acquired while trying to assert itself as a peer to older and better-funded universities through expansive financial aid offerings and large-scale construction projects. 

The University is also working with consultant Steven Kloehn of Peterson Rudgers Group to support the working groups’ discussions. Kloehn previously served as the University’s associate vice president for news and public affairs, and Peterson Rudgers provides consulting services to a long list of University affiliates, including the Harris School, the Lab Schools, and Argonne National Laboratory.

An individual speaking on condition of anonymity because of the nature of their position within the division said Kloehn is spearheading the division’s efforts and “seems to be charged with keeping a close eye” on the working groups, despite official plans for the process to be “faculty-led.”

According to the University spokesperson, “The faculty- and staff-led committees have been charged with consulting broadly with colleagues to consider a range of possibilities. The committees are meant to provide advisory recommendations and feedback based on those conversations.”

The Division of the Arts & Humanities’s decision to form working groups comes just three months after UChicago Arts and the Humanities Division rebranded as a consolidated division. It is unclear whether additional reorganization will affect this consolidation. 

Working groups will recommend administrative cost cuts, scaling back programs

Each working group received a charge sheet on June 17, outlining its purpose, responsibilities, and “Questions for Exploration.”

The divisional organization working group’s charge sheet explains that “historic funding pressures” at UChicago and other schools require “clear prioritization and a new level of fiscal discipline” within the division.

According to the divisional structure working group’s charge documents, members were asked to consider if the division’s 15 departments could be reorganized into eight to reduce administrative costs. 

Baicker has also communicated, according to multiple sources, that there will be no departments with fewer than 15 tenure-track faculty members once reorganization efforts take effect. The departments for comparative literature, Germanic studies, Slavic languages and literatures, and South Asian languages and civilizations currently have less than this number.

In an email reviewed by the Maroon, members of the College teaching working group were informed that they “should explore what is needed to achieve a fair distribution of College teaching loads within the Division among departments and individuals.”

“Planning for a more sustainable approach to College teaching should include both the need for larger class sizes and the need to accomplish as much of the teaching as possible with current faculty and OAAs,” the email continued.

According to Delogu, members of the divisional organization group seemed optimistic about the direction of talks with administrators as of last week because the University administration seemed more open to cross-department collaboration without consolidation. 

Still, when it comes to other points of negotiation, working group members “feel like we’re being told if we don’t meet the demands of the Provost’s office, they’re going to do it for us,” she said. 

For example, some graduate programs may face minimum enrollment and “net” tuition inflow requirements—mandating the program make a certain amount of money per student—to continue operating, according to an individual with knowledge of the plans. 

Multiple groups have questioned the administration’s motives, asking Baicker and Nelson to clarify the intellectual arguments behind reorganization and to provide more details about how it would cut costs, according to Delogu. 

In the Ph.D. working group, Delogu noted that faculty members have looked for ways to enact cost-cutting measures while still supporting students. Savings from the Ph.D. program would likely come from reducing either the number of Ph.D. students or the number of years they are funded, she said.

The group has not yet agreed on final recommendations, but they are identifying ways to support students through difficult research to complete their doctoral degrees faster, she said. They are also considering creating degree programs that would take a shorter amount of time and thus less University funding to complete than a Ph.D, such as a Master of Philosophy.

According to the languages working group’s charge sheet, members were asked to discuss what criteria to use when determining whether a class should be offered, whether there was “no longer [a] need to teach” certain languages, and if “partnerships with corporations or other organizations” could support language instruction at UChicago.

“Language instruction at this extraordinary scope is also expensive, and cannot be treated in isolation — investments in language instruction must be balanced with other divisional needs and opportunities,” the document stated. 

“These changes would mean the end of my department”

For some faculty members, the potential reorganization reflects a sobering reality for academia. 

“In the humanities, there is the view that the University doesn’t want to produce new knowledge,” said Andrew Ollett, a professor of South Asian languages and civilizations. Ollett declined to serve on a working group, instead mobilizing faculty to collectively raise concerns over the proposed changes. 

If the division’s reorganization cuts Ph.D. and language programs, Ollet says, it would signal “the end of [his] department, which is by most considerations the best program for South Asian studies in North America.” 

The charges, Delogu said, stem from a growing need in higher education to justify the existence of the humanities at large and to demonstrate the value of humanities students beyond academia.

She worries that larger, combined departments might require more administrative positions, not fewer, to function effectively. She also expressed concerns that the administration might be asking the Arts & Humanities Division to cut back to compensate for other divisions’ financial challenges, asking whether “our entire unit [is] being used to float other units facing cuts.”

The University has historically prioritized and invested in specialist knowledge, Ollett said. “Now, the transformation to a different type of university seems to be very well on the way, and if these changes go through, it will be complete.” 

We ask anyone who has information about this reorganization or similar changes in other units of the University to please contact us at editor@chicagomaroon.com. The Maroon protects source information, and your name and contact information will only be seen by the paper’s editors-in-chief and managing editor.

Editor’s note, 11:50 a.m. July 22: This article previously stated that the Division of the Arts & Humanities had 18 departments. This has been corrected to 15 departments, reflecting the fact that the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Master of Arts Program in the Humanities are not departments but instead different types of administrative units.

Editor’s note, 9:20 a.m. July 24: This article has been updated to include information on the College teaching working group.

Editor’s note, 11:30 a.m. July 24: The article has been updated to correct a misattributed detail.