The University System of Maryland would cut approximately 400 jobs under Gov. Wes Moore’s proposed budget.

The workforce cuts would amount to around $45 million, affecting both vacant and filled positions, “many of them contingent or part-time,” said USM Chancellor Jay Perman at a Friday budget hearing. In total, the university system would see a total of $111 million in cuts — or 5% of its budget — as elected leaders work to address the state’s $3 billion deficit.

The cuts “will be difficult for our universities, for the faculty and staff they employ and for the students they educate,” Perman said. “There’s very little we can cut that won’t have a real and significant impact on them.”

Perman said unfilled positions will increase faculty-to-student ratios and impair students’ abilities to graduate on time. The cuts could affect positions in advising, counseling, mental health services, career services and academic support.

“We’re concerned about seeing a rise in their dropout rate,” he said.

The university system also will cut costs on things like contractual services, supplies, fixed charges and travel expenses. “Operating cuts and efficiencies” would amount to $55 million, Perman said.

In addition, universities would have to reduce deferred maintenance, amounting to $11 million in cuts and potentially increasing “future costs, as our campus buildings age,” he said.

Historically Black colleges and universities are concerned that cuts to student services, fundraising and marketing “will stall the progress they’ve made under the HBCU settlement, intended, of course, to achieve funding equity,” Perman said.

“Of course, Maryland faces a serious deficit,” he said. “We understand that we’re not alone in making tough choices, and that we must do our part in restoring Maryland to fiscal health.”

This isn’t the only year the university system will have to face cuts, said Democratic Montgomery County Sen. Nancy King, who serves as chair of the education, business, and administration subcommittee.

“We don’t want to make our cuts this year and then not have anything left to cut next year,” she said. “So that’s got to be a balancing act to try and figure that out.”

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