The University System of Maryland warned lawmakers that budget cuts could cause lasting and irreversible harm to public colleges, a warning voiced most pointedly this year by Chancellor Jay Perman during a state Senate hearing. He described the revenue squeeze as real and crippling, arguing that another round of reductions would cause irrevocable damage.
Maryland has trimmed $222 million from the system’s funding over the past two years, and Perman cautioned that a third hit would be unsustainable. With many universities serving as major employers in their communities, hundreds of job losses could follow. Federal funding declines, shifts in loan programs, and reduced international enrollment have left public campuses "cutting dangerously close to the bone." He acknowledged the state’s budgetary constraint, noting a current shortfall of about $1.4 billion, which, while smaller than last year’s $3 billion gap, still poses significant challenges.
Federal cuts, in particular, have hit hard. The system projects a $300 million reduction in research funding over the next two years, representing nearly one-third of its $1 billion federal research portfolio. Institutions like the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore anticipate up to 500 job losses. If Goddard Space Flight Center continues to shrink its footprint, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County could face up to 250 lost research positions.
Across the system, roughly $120 million in grants have been canceled since January, frequently for projects tied to language, diversity, equity, and inclusion. The slowdown in new grant awards threatens broader research momentum, Perman warned.
University leaders echoed these concerns. UMB President Bruce Jarrell stated that federal funding remains irreplaceable, noting that the evaporation of such funds is already underway and accelerating. Jarrell indicated his campus has already endured layoffs and wage reductions, with current cuts amounting to about 22% and still unfolding. Grants in genetics and genomics have fallen by 47%, and cancer research funding by 25%, he added, warning that these cuts risk sidelining senior and mid-career researchers and jeopardizing the training pipeline for the next generation of scientists.
At the flagship campus in College Park, President Darryll Pines reported roughly $30 million in grants and federal contracts canceled, delayed, or paused. He described the rapid pace and breadth of changes since January as severely disruptive to the university’s research ecosystem and campus community. Over the past two years, College Park alone has borne $100 million in cuts, a trajectory that Pines deemed unsustainable.
Despite record enrollment this year, Perman cautioned that the loss of international students and alterations to federal loan policies will reverberate next year. He warned that international student declines could subtract up to $1 billion in Maryland’s economic activity, given their impact on scholarships, operations, and local economies. The system has already lost nearly 1,000 international graduate students this year, a figure Perman linked largely to weaker enrollment among new students, especially at the master’s level. Teaching assistants and other roles filled by graduate students could be affected as well.
The Grad PLUS loan program termination affected about 6,000 students across the system. Since roughly 40% of medical students statewide rely on this program, the ongoing overhaul under a federal policy shift could reduce graduate enrollment in the coming year. Perman warned that universities may need to rely on layoffs to cope with the combined pressure from federal funding, international enrollment, and graduate education funding.
In short, with all three major revenue sources at risk, Perman argued there is no easy or sufficient alternative to replace the missing funds.
This report is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, a community-funded journalism initiative that provides parents with resources to navigate their children’s learning journeys. For more, read on in The Banner.
Ellie Wolfe covers higher education in Baltimore for The Banner. A Western Massachusetts native and Bates College alumna, Wolfe previously reported on higher education at the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson before joining The Banner.
