The University of Chicago is having serious financial problems and people are upset about it.

The Chicago Tribune reported.

University of Chicago professors, students upset by layoffs and school finances

culty members and student groups are pushing back against University of Chicago leadership and its ongoing effort to lay off administrative personnel across campus.

Leaders of multiple academic divisions were directed to cut budgets by 8 percent, following a university mandate to reduce spending on administration, faculty members told the Tribune. Several non-academic and secretarial staffers in the Humanities division were let go in mid-May, and another round of cuts affecting other branches could hit at the end of June, according to faculty and union representatives.

The layoffs have some questioning why the prestigious institution carrying more than $8 billion in net assets would need to cut costs at all, and how eliminating lower-level administration would help meet changing financial demands. U. of C. paid out just over $2 billion in salaries and benefits to faculty and staff in 2014-15, according to its financial statements.

A university spokesman would not make any top administrators available for comment or to answer specific questions about the cuts. Instead, the officials offered a statement saying the university is committed to aggressive spending on new academic programs, facilities and financial aid packages, things that could not continue without cutbacks elsewhere.