The University of Pennsylvania told schools and centers to trim certain expenditures by 4% as the Ivy‑League institution braces for higher endowment taxes, new graduate borrowing caps and other federal policy shifts. Penn cited rising legal, insurance and benefit costs and said it has avoided the more severe steps some peers took but must plan for new fiscal realities. At the same time, the Department of Education moved closer to finalizing loan‑limit rules that would cap graduate borrowing and alter Grad PLUS availability — a change that could affect enrollment and graduate student financing across research universities. Administrators say the combined policy changes could raise operating costs and pressure budget modeling, especially at institutions with large professional and graduate populations. Colleges with large endowments and significant graduate enrollments are reforecasting tuition models, fellowship budgets and hiring plans to absorb both tax and loan‑policy impacts.