The Dean’s Discourse
Welcome to this quarterly cadence and installment of The Beat: WPI Business School Newsletter. As we welcome the dawn of spring, we are excited by our success. For example, Poets&Quants named WPI as one of the top 50 of all Undergraduate Business Schools for 2025! Identified as one of 2025’s high risers climbing 14 points to the 42nd position overall, WPI is recognized as having the best career outcomes (28th in the nation) and academic experience (42nd in the nation). Also, the World University Rankings recognized our WPI Business School research quality as having significant impact in the world. Additionally, we are celebrating faculty promotions and tenure, student achievement, and successful events. So, it has been a tremendous quarter, and I invite you to read the articles below and celebrate success with us.
My cadence must also consider the impacts to higher education of executive orders and administrative actions that have occurred over this last quarter. For example, the executive order on ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity is targeted to eliminate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs within federally funded institutions. This has sent colleges and universities scrambling to scrub websites, eliminating DEI language and ending programs. Schools taking a non-compliant stance have been threatened with millions of dollars of funding cuts.
Another major impact to colleges and universities has been cuts to indirect funding by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, which are aiming to reduce government spending. Specifically for colleges and universities, indirect costs for research grants are being capped at 15%, replacing previously negotiated rates that ranged from 30% to 70%. This will significantly impact university resources as indirect costs cover items such as laboratory space, equipment, electricity, and hazardous waste disposal.
The Department of Education has also been downsized by 50%, impacting approximately 1,300 employees. A key area of concern in the face of these cuts is financial aid management where there is an expectation that processing aid applications will take significantly longer. It is also anticipated that support services will be hampered, meaning that there will be fewer staff available to support students and their families as they seek financial aid. These cuts will likely hinder access to higher education, especially for low-income and minoritized communities.
How do we respond to these issues? With intentionality. For DEI matters, we recognize that there is a fine line between ensuring compliance with legal mandates and supporting our students, faculty, and staff. Our strategic plan tenet focused on Student Well-Being, Access, and Affordability specifically seeks to avail STEM-based education to historically underrepresented students, thereby transforming lives. Our values include Respect, Community, Inclusion, Innovation, and Achievement, meaning that we are dedicated to creating this inclusive community, undergirded by respect, that fosters innovation and achievement for all. Yes, we will obey the law, but we will also support and advocate for our WPI community because we must be an anchor in these changing times. We are and will continue to be a welcoming, supportive, and inclusive community.
Regarding cuts to indirect funding, this will have an impact on our research. WPI recently celebrated achieving R1 status, a Carnegie classification of institutions of higher education as a doctoral university with very high research activity. It means that we graduate at least 70 doctoral students annually and invest a minimum of $50 million in research expenditures. So, in our desire to maintain our achievements, we will continue to promote research. We will seek new sources of revenue. We will seek new partnerships where there are opportunities to spread the costs of research. And we will do these things because we have no intention of backtracking.
Finally given the cuts to the Department of Education, we will work to support prospective students. Right now, we are in the process of accepting students who have applied for admission to WPI. In the Business School, armed with lists of students who have been accepted and indicated interest in studying business, we are reaching out with emails, videos, and personalized contacts to help prospective students quickly confirm their acceptance to WPI. The earlier students confirm, the more quickly we can support them in navigating the financial aid process.
It has been a busy quarter marked by accomplishment and challenge. Yet, we are steadfast in our efforts as we believe that a WPI education is worth it. Just as I invited you to celebrate with us, I invite you to also advocate with us for the value of higher education. It remains as one of the premier means of social and economic mobility and a mechanism for technological and scientific advancement through research. Because of the importance of higher education, our desire is to ensure that it remains accessible for all.
Blessings,
Dean Debora Jackson