Stanford University endowment drop forces layoffs

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Stanford University is cutting nearly 500 positions this year due to an estimated 30 percent drop in its endowment, the U.S. West Coast institution said on Wednesday.

The Silicon Valley-area university, which counts Google Inc (GOOG.O) founders Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and other technology titans among its graduates, has laid off 412 employees this year and plans to cut 60 more jobs out of about 12,000 employed.

A university bulletin said budget cuts also include scaling back graduate aid funding in the humanities and sciences school, reducing engineering teaching assistantships and abandoning education school plans to expand into new research areas such as cognitive neuroscience.

The job cuts targeted support staff rather than instructors but 50 open faculty positions are being kept open and salaries have been frozen across campus.

Public and private institutions faces sharp cuts in funding as the U.S. recession roils education. Stanford expects a drop in its endowment to $12 billion from $17.2 billion last August.

The budget for the fiscal year begun on Tuesday is down 15 percent and cuts were aimed at avoiding effects on student programs, spokeswoman Lisa Lapin said.

Some 72 jobs more will be cut as research in mostly government-sponsored programs ends, although Lapin said that was a cyclical process not related to the economy. Economic stimulus funds in health, environment and alternative energy would probably more than make up for the loss, she said (Writing and reporting by Peter Henderson; Editing by Bill Trott)