March 6, 2025

Dear URI Faculty and Staff,

Recent executive orders and federal actions, and the possibility of additional federal measures, have created significant uncertainty regarding federal funding for higher education, particularly research funding. We are grateful to each of you for your dedication to URI and for the many ways you continue to advance innovative research and teaching.

Our Leadership Team on Federal Actions continues to meet regularly; closely monitor and report on emerging federal actions; work collaboratively with University colleagues; and recommend forward-oriented strategies in support of our work, foundational values, and mission.

Compounding the federal funding uncertainty, we entered this fiscal year with a projected budget shortfall due to lower-than-expected enrollment, which directly affects tuition revenue. And the State of Rhode Island is forecasting its own budget deficit in the upcoming 2026 fiscal year (FY26).

Given these factors, it is essential that we reassess and adjust our financial projections for FY26 to ensure the long-term fiscal sustainability necessary to continue fulfilling our mission. Our goal is to create a balanced budget that accurately reflects our operational costs and projected expenditures, allowing us to be more responsive to any emerging federal changes.

Led by our Division of Administration and Finance team, we are initiating a strategic, proactive analysis of all academic and administrative unit budgets. We are not, at this time, adjusting current fiscal year (FY25) budgets. Rather, this process is focused on realigning our planned FY26 budget based on actual revenues and historical spending patterns, including a rolling three-year average of expenditures. This effort will help ensure that our budget is both balanced for FY26 and sustainable over time. We will work to ensure transparency, accountability, and a stronger connection between revenues and expenditures.

Balancing the FY26 budget will not involve across-the-board cuts, and we are not, at this time, implementing a hiring freeze. Instead, budget adjustments will be made based on historical spending trends. This will be a collective effort, and deans and vice presidents will have the opportunity to provide feedback on any proposed changes to their unit budgets before final decisions are made.

New federal actions continue to be introduced at a rapid pace, and so we will move quickly with this proactive process and expect to share preliminary results with colleges and administrative units by mid-March.

We met this week with deans, vice presidents, and chief business officers to discuss and begin this process, and we felt it important to also share this information with all of you. We appreciate that you may have questions—about this effort specifically, and about the impact of federal actions more broadly. We will host a town hall on Thursday, March 27, to bring our community together, and to provide more information and answer your questions. Additional details regarding the town hall will be shared soon.

Thank you for your commitment as we work to respond to federal changes, ensure the long-term financial health of the University, and fulfill our vital mission.

Sincerely,

Marc Parlange, President

Barbara Wolfe, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs