Faculty Senate addressed a budget model reform, faculty input for Northwestern’s 18th president and the relationship between the University and faculty at its Wednesday meeting in Scott Hall.
Outgoing Provost Kathleen Hagerty, along with Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Amanda Distel, said the Office of Budget and Planning is working with consulting company Deloitte toward a budget model reform.
The model will prioritize allocating funds with transparency and encourage entrepreneurship and innovation, according to the Office of Budget and Planning’s website.
Distel said they hope to preserve “interdisciplinary” movement and collaboration in the new financial model.
“We are looking at ways we can better allocate revenues aligned with activity,” Distel said, describing the new model as “reactive.”
The University’s current budget model is divided into four allocation categories: appropriated schools, such as the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and McCormick School of Engineering, non-appropriated schools, such as the Feinberg School of Medicine and Kellogg School of Management, auxiliary units and administrative units.
The formation of a new model will be a “multi-year effort,” and the University is still in “design and build conversations,” Distel said.
However, some voiced skepticism about the new model.
“It’s not clear that there is that commitment to multi-disciplinary education and research,” history Prof. Helen Tilley said.
Hagerty said the University plans to prioritize salary increases in fiscal year 2027 planning, but that it remains vigilant about risks areas of “financial market uncertainty” and the current legal environment for higher education.
The discussion expanded on a reflection of last year’s budget constraints, particularly the federal funding freeze and the Nov. 28 deal with the Trump administration to restore federal funding.
In April, the federal government froze $790 million worth of grants and contracts revenue and issued numerous stop-work orders. Sixty terminated research awards, worth $60 million, are “unlikely to be restored” and the eight-month impact of the freeze was approximately $350 million, according to Hagerty and Distel’s budget presentation.
In a Jan. 9 interview with The Daily, interim President Henry Bienen said the frozen $790 million fell into two categories.
“One bucket were grants that were appropriated but not paid,” Bienen said. “Another bucket was grants that look forward, where money had been authorized, but payment need not have been made yet.”
He said the first bucket was worth roughly $350 million, which the presentation to Faculty Senate referenced.
At the moment, NU has recovered almost all of its federal funding, Distel said at the meeting. She added that the University is “back to a steady state,” but some stop-work orders have yet to be lifted.
Both Hagerty and Distel recognized the reverberating impact of the federal funding freeze, settlements and policy changes on the University’s financial health. Hagerty called the freeze an “incredibly disruptive force.”
The University ended the 2025 fiscal year in an “operating deficit” of about $150 million, Distel said. The $75 million settlement from the federal funding deal greatly contributed to this deficit, despite being paid over the course of three years.
Faculty Senate President and political science Prof. Ian Hurd also sought feedback on the ongoing search for NU’s 18th president.
Some faculty members expressed wanting to see a new president who would enhance NU arts programs and possess experience in the research world.
Faculty Senate President-Elect and art history Prof. Rebecca Zorach said she hoped that, going forward, the new University president would be a “defender” of the role universities play in upholding “a robust civil society” of academia and free speech.
However, art theory and practice Prof. Michael Rakowitz questioned how much the University will value faculty feedback in the presidential search process, because he felt their opinion was disregarded in the University’s recent deal with the federal government and warned that the current solicitation for their input might only give the “illusion of process.”
In a discussion of the relationship between faculty and University administration, McCormick Prof. Ian Horswill said the biggest challenge was navigating the conflict between increasing transparency and the possible legal ramifications of being more transparent about dealing with the government.
“More transparency about how decisions are made, I think would really, really help a lot — not that that’s news to anyone here,” Horswill said.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly contextualized Rakowitz’s quotes. The Daily regrets this error.
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