Officials instructed school and unit leaders to prepare budget contingency plans for fiscal year 2027 as international student applications falter, University President Ellen Granberg told the Faculty Senate Friday.
Granberg said all schools and divisions are preparing budget scenarios, which Interim Provost John Lach confirmed will include five, 10 and 15 percent reductions, as officials assess the University’s financial outlook for FY2027. Granberg said the directive, led jointly by Lach and Chief Financial Officer Bruno Fernandes, will help officials plan ahead if international application rates continue to lag amid President Donald Trump’s travel bans and visa policy changes, as GW’s preliminary applicant data indicates.
Granberg said the University has received about 50 percent of the total graduate applications officials expect for fall 2026, noting that international applications are down overall for both undergraduate and graduate programs, which could affect the composition of incoming students and GW’s net tuition revenue next fiscal year.
“We have a long way to go before we understand the full shape of the incoming class, but what we’re seeing right now is enough that as we develop the FY2027 budget, all schools and divisions will be doing a budget scenario exercise as a part of that,” Granberg said.
GW is a tuition-dependent institution, with tuition accounting for more than 63 percent of its total operating revenue in FY2025. The University enrolled 3,281 international students from 140 countries this fall, making up more than 13 percent of GW’s student population, according to enrollment data.
Granberg added that GW’s graduate programs are seeing “really significant declines” in international student applications, particularly from certain countries, though she did not specify which. She said the drops will affect some degree programs more than others — trends she attributed to Trump-era visa restrictions, travel bans and changes to federal funding eligibility for certain graduate programs.
GW enrolled 293 fewer new international graduate students this year — dropping from 1,003 in 2024 to 710 in 2025 — according to data Vice President and Dean of Enrollment Management and Student Success Jay Goff shared with the Faculty Senate last month.
Granberg said GW doesn’t finalize graduate admissions until the summer, which would be too late to respond if current trends persist, prompting officials to begin planning now. She added that residential applications are on track with initial targets, and domestic applications are slightly ahead of last year.
Any potential FY2027 budget cuts would follow the 3 percent reductions officials already made to the FY2026 budget to address a structural deficit amid federal research funding cuts and risks to other federal funding sources, economic and political instabilities and potential disruptions to federal student aid and international student enrollment.
Faculty senator Jennifer Brinkerhoff said she supports preparing budget scenarios, but schools have been “cutting, cutting, cutting,” leaving some as “skeletons.” She said the deans could only meet any of the proposed scenarios by eliminating programs.
Brinkerhoff asked how officials are consulting with deans and plan to engage faculty in decision-making, which could involve “tough decisions” about programs or units and discussions on consolidating units where it makes sense for the academic enterprise.
Granberg said officials’ decisions would be “consultative,” though she did not specify who officials would consult in the processes. She added that uncertainty around international graduate enrollment reinforces officials’ need to pursue new revenue streams.
Lach said Fernandes and the finance team are working to identify resources that officials can use to fund investments and generate new revenue streams.
Lach said he met with all deans and stressed the need to engage their communities on the trends and potential implications of declining graduate applications, citing “concerning” early indicators. He noted that the situation evolves daily, pointing to Trump’s new visa restrictions last week affecting some countries that were strategic growth areas for the University in recent years.
Trump last week indefinitely halted immigrant visa processing for people from 75 countries, adding to the June travel ban that barred or limited entry to the U.S. for citizens of 19 countries.
Brinkerhoff, in response to Lach, said because the University is decentralized, it is up to the deans to decide how they engage faculty in their decision-making. She said there’s no formal mechanism to learn about the decisions happening across units, and she hopes officials develop a process to ensure deans and unit leaders use faculty input and share knowledge across units.
“We have a lot of experience that we can contribute to these processes, and especially when we’re talking about decisions that have such a direct impact on the programming that we can effectively deliver,” Brinkerhoff said.
Faculty senator Phil Wirtz said Granberg’s budget update interests fellow faculty members given officials’ announcement last month that they expect GW to yield a slim $1 million operating surplus in FY2026. He said officials haven’t provided updated numbers on where GW’s finances actually stand this year, and now they’re talking about asking deans to make contingency plans for next year.
“I’m wondering if you could sort of calm down the campus about this because there’s an enormous amount of concern, at least among my constituents, about exactly what’s going on with the current budget,” Wirtz said.
Officials last reported that the structural deficit stood at $24 million as of July, and officials have not provided an updated number since. Officials told the Faculty Senate last month they expect GW to operate at or near break-even in FY2026 after operating expenses exceeded revenue by $75 million in the prior fiscal year.
Officials throughout the beginning of FY2026 made cuts to campus operations, programs and resources, ranging from halting the School of Business’ peer mentorship program for the fall semester to laying off 43 staff members.
Granberg said officials in FY2026 are aiming to close the budget gap and are on track to make progress on closing a piece of the structural deficit. She said officials are also seeing warning signs, like international graduate application numbers, which are “not insignificant” for GW’s revenue and warrant preparation.
“The reason for the scenarios that not just deans but every division, so every vice president, it’s not limited to the schools, is being asked to think about, is if things were to either stay as they’re pointing or, I certainly hope not, get worse, what actions would we take?” Granberg said.
Wirtz asked if officials expect to lose $100 million in FY2026 to fund the Medical Faculty Associates. Granberg said she does not expect this because of the co-funding agreement the University entered in with Universal Health Services in October, which she told the Staff Council Friday halved the University’s financial support for the medical enterprise.
Wirtz then asked Granberg if she expects the University to lose $50 million to fund the MFA. Granberg said she doesn’t know where the MFA’s finances are trending, but given the patterns of the MFA’s losses in recent years, it’s “quite possible” GW will lose $50 million.
The MFA lost $100 million in FY2025, marking the enterprise’s second highest loss ever on record and the sixth consecutive fiscal year officials have reported the MFA operated in a deficit of tens of millions of dollars.
Financial documents to date show the MFA has lost at least $78 million each year for the last four fiscal years — $100 million in FY2025, $107 million in FY2024, $78 million in FY2023 and $78 million in FY2022, which has resulted in GW and other lenders loaning the medical enterprise hundreds of millions of dollars to keep afloat.
Arjun Srinivas, Alyssa Wismar and Elijah Edwards contributed reporting.
