Harvard Dental Center To Lay Off Staff After Closing Cambridge Clinic

The Harvard School of Dental Medicine will lay off staff in the Harvard Dental Center following its decision to permanently close its clinic location in Cambridge.

HSDM Dean William V. Giannobile announced the plans in an email to HSDM staff and wrote that the decision comes alongside an assessment of the spatial capacity and “staffing needs” in the HDC’s Longwood clinic, which has absorbed all patients, staff, and faculty formerly at the Cambridge location.

“We know the reality is that we will not be able to retain the same level of staffing as we did for both practices in the single Longwood location,” Giannobile wrote.

The HDC provides dental care to Harvard- and non-Harvard-affiliated patients and employs 80 staff — including dentists, hygienists, and assistants — across its faculty group practice, teaching practice, and clinical operations.

The location in Cambridge was shut down last month after being temporarily closed for six months due to damage from an electrical fire, and its operations have been moved entirely to the clinic’s second location in Longwood. Giannobile wrote in a message at the time that the shutdown was a result of challenges following the fire, as well as schoolwide financial constraints.

Despite the announcement of impending layoffs, staff members said there has been little communication about which positions the layoffs will impact and when they may occur.

Michael D. Palys, a dentist in the clinic’s faculty group practice, said that the lack of clarity on who the changes will impact has caused “a lot of angst” among staff, especially those of who have been hired most recently.

“People are worried because the information they’re getting is sparse and vague,” he said. “I hope we find out sooner than later.”

Palys added that he has received no communication from the school after contacting human resources on whether his position will be affected.

An HSDM spokesperson declined to comment, citing a policy against commenting on personnel matters.

According to two staff members, the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers — which HDC staff, excluding dentists and faculty, are a part of — is actively working with human resources staff to finalize the details of the layoffs.

HUCTW did not respond to a request for comment.

The University has already made layoffs at other schools, including the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Harvard Kennedy School, and the Harvard School of Public Health, as federal funding cuts and a spike in the endowment tax have turned up the financial pressure on Harvard.

In his email to staff, Giannobile wrote that the ongoing review of HDC’s staffing needs is part of the effort to “create the necessary capacity to meet our educational, research, and patient service mission.”

Staff members said the closure of the dental clinic’s Cambridge location is creating capacity issues at the Longwood clinic, which is also home to the Dental Center’s teaching practice, where HSDM students and residents provide patient care under faculty supervision.

“The third- and fourth-year dental students are the priority, and the rest of us using that space are secondary,” Palys said. “Everybody else now includes the Harvard Dental Center of Cambridge that's closed.”

John E. Huth, a Harvard Physics professor who said he received dental care from the clinic for more than 30 years, wrote that he found the news of staffing cuts disheartening.

“It’s very sad that it’s contracting so much and I have many fond memories of interactions with kind and capable dental clinicians over my association with the service,” Huth wrote. “The staff gives their all for the patients and it shows.”

—Staff writer Sheerea X. Yu contributed reporting.

—Staff writer Annabel M. Yu can be reached at annabel.yu@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @annabelmyu.