University of Maryland community members are concerned that Gov. Wes Moore’s proposed cuts to the University System of Maryland budget could negatively impact students.
Moore’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget would reduce funding for the university system by $111 million, meaning the system could eliminate about 400 jobs across its higher education institutions. The eliminated positions would include “student-facing” jobs, such as counselors, advisors and mental health professionals, university system chancellor Jay Perman told state lawmakers during budget hearings in January.
“The nearly five percent cut we’re sustaining will be difficult for our universities,” Perman told lawmakers during a committee hearing on Jan. 31. “We’re in the business of serving people and there is very little that we can cut that won’t have a real and significant impact on [students and faculty].”
United Academics of Maryland-University of Maryland president Karin Rosemblatt said it’s the responsibility of the state legislature to continue funding higher education, especially in a time when the federal government is “attacking the universities and the professors.”
“Students are going to be coming out into a difficult job market with a lot of uncertainty,” the history professor said. “They need all the support, the career counseling and the mental health support that for years the university has recognized are really important to the success of our students.”
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Chetan Joshi, this university’s counseling center director, said his priority is minimizing the impact of potential cuts on clinical services and students.
The cuts could impact many of the counseling center’s services and force certain programs to shrink, Joshi said.
Programs like the Initial Access Team, which assesses students when they first arrive at the center, and the Ongoing Care Team, which provides group and individual therapy, might be threatened under the proposed cut, Joshi said.
Joshi said both the capacity and diverse expertise of the counseling center could also be diminished under potential cuts. This would have an impact on the center’s ability to care for students, he said.
“Depending on the team, it’s going to have a very real clinical consequence in terms of the services that are provided forward to students,” Joshi said.
President Darryll Pines told The Diamondback in January that this university is conducting a budget analysis and is working to ensure the proposed cuts have minimal effect on students and faculty.
“Our goal is to hold as many things harmless as possible, especially our employee status and any programs of importance to our students,” Pines said.
Perman said during the budget hearings that the cuts may lead to higher dropout rates for first-generation and low-income students who rely on the student-support programs that might be limited.
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Perman also said the budget cuts would also cause the university system to limit operating costs, causing a delay in maintenance projects and an increase in costs for aging buildings.
State funding for higher education fluctuates from year to year, said Jeongeun Kim, an associate education professor at this university. But this year’s budget cuts are especially concerning given the rising levels of student stress and mental health crisis, she said.
The American Council on Education found that 41 percent of college students screened positive for depression symptoms and 36 percent screened positive for anxiety symptoms in the 2022-23 year.
“It’s usually the case that those resources are already being stretched,” Kim said. “I think the workloads for staff members are already very heavy. So I’m concerned that it’s going to limit the availability of the resources, but also the quality of the experiences that students will receive from those resources.”
Reduced funding and faculty could also have large effects on the university’s capacity for research, Rosemblatt said.
“When you don’t fully fund programs, there’s research that doesn’t happen,” Rosemblatt said. “There’s research that’s cut short.”
Kim added that budget cuts may limit support for graduate and research assistants which would have a “trickle down effect” on the university’s research.
Rosemblatt said the potential cuts could limit the ability of instructors to teach because facilities and services may be underfunded and departments could face budget tightenings.
“I think on many fronts, we’re going to have to be defending our universities in the year ahead,” Rosemblatt said.
The final budget is set to be passed by both chambers of the General Assembly by March 31.
