By Elliott Nace | Assistant News Editor
Baylor is facing a projected $30 million budget deficit for fiscal year 2027, prompting the university to pause faculty and staff hiring, delay noncritical construction projects and reevaluate planned campus facilities.
In an email sent to the Baylor community Monday, President Linda Livingstone outlined the university’s plans to address the deficit, 10 days after the Board of Regents met to discuss financial optimization and improvements to the student experience.
The announcement also distinguished the projected deficit from expenses associated with former head football coach Dave Aranda’s October firing and the search for his replacement. Livingstone described those costs as a “one-time expense” covered exclusively by Baylor Athletics.
The university’s operating budget for 2026-2027 is $982.2 million, a 1.4% decrease from the 2025-2026 budget of $995.8 million. It marks the first decrease in the university’s operating budget this decade.
“In order to try to buffer increases in tuition, we know that we’ve got to really continue to be as efficient as we can be in our operating expenses,” Livingstone said to The Lariat.
The university also made efforts earlier this year to cut $35 million in operational costs over two years. Livingstone said Baylor’s expenses have remained typical during the first half of fiscal year 2027, with financial pressure instead stemming from broader economic conditions affecting universities.
“As we see pressure on discount rate and then pressure on revenue numbers, in part because of some of the things we’ve talked about, we begin to see the pressure that makes it difficult for revenue to keep up with expenses, even if they’re not increasing at a very high rate,” Livingstone said.
Factors ranging from students favoring public universities to the need for scholarships have created additional financial pressure for private universities such as Baylor, according to Livingstone.
“It’s no one thing, but it’s a lot of different initiatives that we’re working on to position Baylor well and to really make sure that the prospective students out there know how special it is to be a Baylor Bear and to be a part of what we do,” Livingstone told The Lariat in September.
The announcement left some students confused about the university’s spending and the causes of the deficit.
“I have no idea what on earth they spent so much money on, if it wasn’t hiring people or building new buildings or renovations,” Park Row senior Gannon Simpson said.
Among the university’s immediate responses is a pause on filling vacant faculty and staff positions, with some exceptions for key roles. Livingstone said the university will evaluate the financial impact of keeping those positions vacant throughout the remainder of the fiscal year.
“We will have to monitor over time to see how much of an impact that has on the budget, how long that will continue,” Livingstone said. “But certainly through the rest of this fiscal year, we will really pause filling those unfilled positions.”
Simpson said the hiring pause for essential faculty and staff positions could have the greatest impact on students.
The announcement also served as a “call to action” for the Baylor community, with Livingstone urging students, donors, faculty and staff to contribute ideas for how to best optimize university spending. The announcement also invited recipients to send “any cost-reduction, revenue-generating and organization-enhancing ideas” to an email.
“I think it’s important to get students’ opinions on it because they’re the ones that it affects, not most directly, but one of the groups that it affects super directly, like professors and other faculty and students are the biggest demographics that are going to be affected,” Austin freshman Owen Johnson said.
Livingstone said she looks forward to hearing what the Baylor community has to offer in advice and support.
“I suspect, especially since students are included on that, we’re going to get a lot of ideas coming to us … some really good ones that maybe we haven’t thought about, both on the cost-saving side as well as on some ways we could maybe enhance revenue,” Livingstone said.
