Maryland’s public university system has been cut $222 million over three years. College Park and Bowie State responded by cutting people. Coppin State and Frostburg responded by cutting prices — and the state’s own budget testimony credits it as the reason both schools are growing while the rest of the system shrinks.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews
Maryland’s public universities are having a hard year, and it’s not isolated to any one campus. University System of Maryland Chancellor Jay Perman told a General Assembly budget committee in December that the system has absorbed $222 million in cuts over the past three years, warning that further reductions would bring lasting damage. The fiscal 2026 budget alone came in 7 percent smaller than the year before, paired with tuition increases of up to 5 percent and fee hikes of up to 10 percent. Perman took the unusual step of recording a video message to more than 40,000 USM faculty and staff, apologizing in advance for the cuts to come.
“We’re worried about irrevocable damage.”
— Jay Perman, Chancellor, University System of Maryland
Two campuses responded by cutting people. The University of Maryland, College Park laid off 84 state-funded employees in early June, after announcing an April hiring freeze and warning it could eliminate up to 150 positions through a mix of layoffs, vacancies, and retirements. Bowie State University — Maryland’s oldest historically Black institution — is cutting roughly 79 positions, about 6 percent of its workforce, to close an $18 million deficit, its second multimillion-dollar shortfall in two years. Nationally, this isn’t unusual: there are already 2.3 million fewer college students than there were in 2010, and more than 9,000 higher-education positions were eliminated in 2025 alone.
Two other Maryland campuses responded to the same pressure by doing the opposite: they cut tuition instead of costs. Coppin State University did it first and is now held up in the state’s own budget testimony as a model. Frostburg State, out in Western Maryland, is running the same play for a different population.
Two campuses responded by cutting people. Two other Maryland campuses responded to the same pressure by doing the opposite: they cut tuition instead of costs.
The Flagship’s Squeeze
College Park’s numbers tell a budget story more than an enrollment one — overall enrollment there is expected to hold steady, but the university says it has lost about $104 million, or roughly 10 percent, in state funding over the past three years, alongside an estimated $18 million jump in energy costs and a projected $15 million drop in federal funding for fiscal 2027.
The union representing laid-off AFSCME members didn’t hold back, accusing the university of wasting millions on a bloated administration while cutting frontline staff.
Bowie State’s Harder Story
Bowie State’s version of this crisis is messier. The university’s freshman enrollment fell 27 percent between 2022 and 2025 — from 1,170 first-year students down to 844 — and it posted the largest single-year enrollment drop in the entire University System of Maryland last year, losing 6 percent of its roughly 6,000 students. That came weeks after the school closed a $128.5 million fundraising campaign, including a $75 million gift from MacKenzie Scott, which made the subsequent layoff announcement land badly on campus. Eighty-six percent of the faculty senate voted no confidence in President Aminta Breaux, arguing the university should draw down its newly flush endowment rather than cut jobs — including, in an unusual step, potentially laying off tenured professors. Worth noting: of the 79 positions the university is eliminating, only a portion are outright layoffs — a later breakdown from Breaux’s own presentation put it at roughly 49 vacant positions cut plus 26 employees actually laid off, with the rest coming through reorganization.
“Approaching each decision with care, thoughtfulness, and deep respect.”
— Aminta Breaux, President, Bowie State University
Coppin State’s Opposite Bet
Coppin State was in worse shape than either school just a few years ago. When Anthony Jenkins took over as president in 2020, the Baltimore HBCU was losing half its freshmen every year, and its retention rate — the share of students who returned for a second year — was the lowest in the entire University System of Maryland at 55 percent. Jenkins’s response wasn’t austerity — it was a discount. In 2023 he launched Expand Eagle Nation, offering Maryland’s in-state tuition rate to first-time undergraduates from more than 30 states and territories without a historically Black college or university of their own. Full-time in-state tuition at Coppin now runs $7,524 a year — the cheapest four-year public tuition rate in Maryland — against a $14,726 out-of-state sticker price most eligible students never actually pay.
The state’s own fiscal 2027 budget testimony to the General Assembly credits the strategy directly.
The bet worked. Applications rose from 2,519 in 2021 to 18,381 in 2025. Enrollment climbed from 2,101 to 2,790 over the same period, and by 2025 Coppin’s retention rate had climbed to 71 percent — the highest in the university’s history, though still roughly 10 points below the University System of Maryland average. The state’s own fiscal 2027 budget testimony to the General Assembly credits the strategy directly: Coppin’s first-time freshman class jumped from 467 to 747 students in a single year. Jenkins has since taken the pitch on the road, recruiting directly in states like California that have few or no HBCU options, and the university has signed transfer partnerships with two-year college systems in Colorado and California.
“We knew that we couldn’t get this wrong. It would have been a disaster.”
— Anthony L. Jenkins, President, Coppin State University
Frostburg Is Running the Same Play
Coppin isn’t the only Maryland public university betting on affordability instead of austerity. Frostburg State University, in the far western panhandle of the state, announced in April that undergraduates from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and parts of northern Virginia, eastern Ohio, and southern New York will qualify for in-state tuition starting fall 2027 — the same underlying strategy as Coppin’s, aimed at a regional Appalachian population instead of HBCU-seeking students. Frostburg’s motivation is nearly identical to Coppin’s pre-2020 crisis: the university has seen a 37 percent decline in in-state and regional undergraduate enrollment over the past decade, and total undergraduate enrollment has fallen more than 27 percent since 2017, from 4,725 students to 3,436. The same University System of Maryland testimony that credits Coppin’s turnaround also notes UMES — which adopted Coppin’s HBCU-tuition model — just logged its fourth consecutive year of enrollment growth.
It does complicate any simple story about whether discounted tuition is inherently a drain on Maryland’s public university system.
Same Mechanism, Different Outcome
- Coppin’s Expand Eagle Nation, Frostburg’s regional discount, and Maryland’s Dream Act all work the same way: offering the in-state tuition rate to students who wouldn’t otherwise qualify for it — by home state, by region, or by high school residency.
- Coppin and Frostburg’s versions are aimed at boosting enrollment revenue directly and have been publicly framed as turnaround stories, not costs — including in the state’s own budget testimony.
- All three programs mean the state collects less per student than the out-of-state rate would bring in — the same fiscal mechanism now under separate political scrutiny in the Dream Act’s case.
| School | Direction | Result |
|---|---|---|
| UMD College Park | Cutting costs, holding tuition | 84 laid off; up to 150 positions targeted |
| Bowie State | Cutting costs, holding tuition | ~79 positions cut; enrollment down 6% in a year |
| Coppin State | Cutting tuition, not costs | Applications up 7x since 2021; enrollment up 33% |
| Frostburg State | Cutting tuition, not costs | Betting on the same fix after a 27% enrollment drop since 2017 |
None of this means discounting tuition is a guaranteed fix — Frostburg’s results won’t be visible until the program launches in fall 2027, and Coppin is a much smaller campus recovering from a much lower base than a flagship the size of College Park. But it does complicate any simple story about whether discounted tuition is inherently a drain on Maryland’s public university system. In Coppin’s case, the state’s own budget testimony, the students, and the university system all say it’s working. Whether that logic extends to other populations getting a similar discount is exactly the question Annapolis is now fighting DOJ over.
Sources Maryland Matters, “UMd lays off 84 employees,” June 2026 · DBKNews, “USM chancellor says budget cuts putting ‘crippling’ pressure on Maryland universities,” December 2025 · Maryland Matters, “University regents approve fiscal 2026 budget,” June 2025 · The Banner, “Bowie State University raised nearly $130 million. Now it’s planning layoffs,” May 2026 · The Banner, “Coppin State University is betting big on affordability. Will it pay off?” July 2026 · The Banner, “Frostburg State University discounts tuition amid enrollment struggles,” April 2026 · University System of Maryland, Chancellor’s FY2027 budget testimony to the Maryland General Assembly · Inside Higher Ed, “In-state tuition for out-of-state HBCU aspirants” · Inside Higher Ed, “December Cuts Close Out Brutal Year for Sector,” January 2026
Keep MDBayNews Reporting Free
MDBayNews exists to help Marylanders understand decisions made by state and local leaders — especially when those decisions affect daily life, rights, and public services.
If this article helped clarify what’s happening or why it matters, reader support makes it possible to keep publishing clear, independent reporting like this.
Have a tip or documents to share?
We review submissions carefully and confidentially. Anonymous tips are welcome when appropriate.
Discover more from Maryland Bay News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.