University System of Maryland warns layoffs, service cuts after proposed 5% appropriation reduction

Chancellor (name not specified), testifying to the House Appropriations Committee’s Education and Economic Development Subcommittee, warned that a proposed reduction in state funding of about 5% for the University System of Maryland (USM) would force difficult choices that are likely to affect personnel, student services and campus facilities.

Budget analyst Sarah Baker told the subcommittee that overall fall undergraduate enrollment grew 1.6% between 2023 and 2024, and 0.9% when excluding the Global Campus; she identified University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) as the fastest-growing campus (about a 10.5% increase) and Towson University as having the largest raw decline (253 students). Baker said first-time student enrollments declined by 79 when excluding the Global Campus and that, using fall 2019 as a pre-pandemic baseline, USM enrollment was down by 669 students including Global Campus and was further below the baseline when Global Campus is excluded.

The chancellor said the system must absorb the reduction while protecting students and staff. "The nearly 5% cut we're sustaining is going to be difficult for our universities, for the faculty and staff they employ, for the students they educate," the chancellor said. He summarized the system's planned responses as workforce actions (roughly…