Each of the last three years, University System of Maryland Chancellor Jay Perman has pleaded with Annapolis lawmakers to shield public colleges from state budget cuts.

But this year, Perman gave a dire warning about what would happen if they ignore his pleas.

“The pressure on our revenues are real and crippling,” he said in a Tuesday state Senate hearing. “We’re worried about irrevocable damage.”

Over the last two years, Maryland has slashed $222 million from the system’s budget, and it can’t sustain a third blow, Perman said. Hundreds of jobs at the state’s universities, often the largest employers in their respective communities, are at stake. Thanks to federal funding cuts, changes to loan programs, and fewer international students, he said, Maryland’s public colleges are “cutting dangerously close to the bone.”

In his testimony, Perman acknowledged that the state has “little to give.” Lawmakers are facing a $1.4 billion deficit this year, which is hefty but better than last year’s budget shortfall of $3 billion.

But he said federal cuts have been devastating. The university system is estimating losses in research funding of $300 million over two years, nearly a third of its total $1 billion federal research portfolio. The University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore are predicting losing up to 500 jobs. And if the Goddard Space Flight Center continues to be gutted, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County could lose 250 research jobs.

Universities across the system have had approximately $120 million in grants canceled, most often for language or objectives flagged as related to diversity, equity and inclusion since January. The slowdown of new grants awarded, Perman said, “poses another grave threat.”

College leaders echoed his warnings.

“There is no replacement for the federal funding,” said UMB President Bruce Jarrell. “These things are evaporating, and they’re evaporating very quickly.”

Jarrell said his university, which has already faced layoffs and wage reductions this year, has seen cuts of 22%, “and that’s just starting.”

Grants related to genetics and genomics have been cut by 47%, he said. Cancer research has been reduced by 25%.

“It means that we risk losing a whole class of senior and intermediate career investigators, people very expert in an area and the next generation of researchers,” he said. “State funding is really important; we cannot absorb additional cuts.”

At the state’s flagship university in College Park, about $30 million in grants and federal contracts has been canceled, delayed or paused, university President Darryll Pines said at the hearing.

“The speed and scope and scale of change since January has been very disruptive to our entire research ecosystem and campus community,” he said.

Over the last two years, the system’s College Park campus has sustained $100 million in cuts.

“Those cuts are not sustainable,” Pines said.

And though the system saw record-high enrollment this year, Perman warned that the loss of international students and changes to federal loan policies will be felt next year.

“Their absence would affect our scholarship, our operations and puncture a sizable source of Maryland’s economic activity,” Perman said, adding that the state could see losses of up to $1 billion from a reduction of international students.

The system has already lost nearly 1,000 foreign-born graduate students this year, Perman revealed. Most of that, he said, reflects depressed enrollment among new students, particularly at the master’s level.

Graduate students often serve as teaching assistants who lecture, grade and work with undergrads.

The termination of the Grad PLUS loan program impacted 6,000 students across the system. About 40% of those studying medicine at a public university in the state borrow from the program, which is experiencing an overhaul from the Trump administration. That’s likely to reduce graduate student enrollment next year.

“Our universities will have to look to layoffs,” Perman warned.

“In this environment, with all three of our revenue sources at risk,” he said, referring to federal funding, international students and graduate education, “there isn’t anywhere we can turn to to make up the difference.”

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