Unlike some other Ivy League schools, Penn will not be laying people off, initiating hiring freezes, or slashing budgets, said President Amy Gutmann in yesterday’s university-wide email. In fact, things aren’t so bad in Philadelphia. Gutmann writes:

As a result of the record-breaking success of our first year of the Making History campaign, coupled with the prudent choices we made before the economy worsened, we are well-positioned to weather the economic storm. We will continue to plan for the future just as we always have, by implementing sound budgets, by managing our costs, and by maintaining focus on our highest school and institutional priorities.

But what does “well-positioned” mean? According to Gutmann, it means Penn won’t resort to any exceedingly unpleasant measures. She writes:

Penn’s commitment to need-blind admissions and need-based financial aid remains resolute.

While we are not implementing broad-scale layoffs, hiring freezes, or across-the-board budget reductions, individual Schools and Centers have the flexibility to implement additional cost-cutting measures as needed to create balanced and sustainable budgets.

Sounds good. But what are these “additional cost-cutting measures?” According to this email, they involve not hiring more people and firing existing people. After the jump, Gutmann gives you the bad news.

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