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“This is a really hard time. There’s no getting around it,” President Jim Lucchese wrote to faculty and staff.
Berklee College of Music laid off 3 percent of its employees across its campuses, affecting 70 staff members and no faculty positions, a spokesperson said.
The workforce reduction will not impact any programs or academic offerings, a spokesperson for the prestigious music college said in a statement to Boston.com Thursday. The staff members were impacted globally. Berklee has campuses in Boston’s Back Bay, New York City, and Valencia, Spain.
Berklee President Jim Lucchese, the former CEO as Sofar Sounds who joined the college in January, called the cuts “difficult but unavoidable” in a letter to faculty and staff.
“You all have already taken actions to serve our students under more constrained operating budgets and have done so exceptionally well. While these actions represent meaningful progress, more is needed to ensure Berklee’s long term sustainability,” Lucchese wrote.
All of the affected employees will be offered severance and compensation, subsidized health care continuation, and career transition support, according to Lucchese.
In the letter, Lucchese pointed to “rising costs, a dynamic enrollment environment, and shifting national policies.” Universities across the country, including Massachusetts colleges, are facing budget cuts amid federal funding freezes and drops in international student enrollment.
Since President Donald Trump took office, some Berklee students saw their visas revoked, and the summer saw heightened vetting of visas and travel bans. In 2024, Berklee had a student population of just more than 7,500 students, and 40 percent of those were international, from 100 countries, according to the college.
Berklee’s enrollment data for this year is not yet available. According to The Boston Globe, Berklee has the highest concentration of foreign students in the Boston area, coming in over Boston University, MIT, and Harvard.
The Berklee Faculty Union is currently negotiating a new contract with the college, according to social media posts. The union said in addition to staff layoffs, the college cut course sections and time audits for full-timers.
Dozens of Berklee students protested the layoffs outside the Boston Conservatory building, according to videos the union shared on Instagram. “People over profit,” students shouted, with a tuba tooting along with the chant.
“This is a really hard time. There’s no getting around it,” Lucchese wrote to faculty.
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