Harvard Museums Brace For Layoffs

“Employees of the Harvard University art museums are bracing for a round of cuts as the museums try to shrink a projected operating-budget deficit of almost $1.5 million. Workers were told by memo last week that layoffs would be part of a larger plan to balance the budget.” No one is talking in hard numbers yet, and museum administrators have criticized a student paper for hyping the layoffs, but with more than 70% of the museum budgets funded by endowment funds, which have been hard-hit by the continuing economic slump, few expect the staff cuts will be minor.