Bowie State University to lay off 20 faculty members amid $18 million deficit

Roughly 20 faculty members at Bowie State University, at least one of them tenured, have been told they won’t have a job next year as administrators seek to curb the historically Black university’s $18 million deficit.

Laying off tenured professors is an extraordinary action, because those positions are typically protected. The newly announced layoffs follow the 75 staff jobs the university eliminated in the spring.

The faculty layoffs, according to university spokesperson Stacie Burgess, come after the merger and reorganization of academic departments and broader organizational restructuring. Faculty were notified one year before they lose their jobs and will continue teaching this school year.

In a recent letter to the university community, Bowie State President Aminta Breaux wrote that the final number of faculty layoffs ”could change as individual circumstances are reviewed.”

Breaux wrote that the university “continues to face a structural deficit and significant financial pressures that we expect will extend into Fiscal Year 2028,” which lasts from July 1, 2027, through June 30, 2028.

“Our circumstances require more than a one-year response,” she wrote. “We must continue adapting how we operate so that revenues and expenses come into an appropriate balance over time while protecting the academic quality, mission and long-term vitality of the university.”

Last year, Bowie State, Maryland’s oldest historically Black university, employed 240 professors, 199 of whom were tenured. The university’s total employee count, which includes faculty and staff, grew from 896 in 2015 to 1,175 in 2025.

The university, in an effort to reduce overhead costs, has suspended admissions to several bachelor’s and master’s programs, including a Master of Arts in English and a Master of Science in nursing.

Tamara Brown, a history professor, has been teaching at Bowie State for 19 years and was notified this week that she’d be laid off. She teaches required general education courses, including African American history.

“I don’t know how our students can graduate with all of these professors cut,” she said. “Maybe the university will just hire adjuncts, but who will be on the search committees if you’ve laid off all the faculty?”

On Tuesday, Brown says, she was asked to meet with the university’s provost, Guy-Alain Amoussou. She initially wasn’t concerned — she had received her salary notification letter, she said, and assumed that meant her job was safe.

But, when she went into Amoussou’s office and saw a human resources staff member present, she tensed.

“I was given a folder with a letter from the president, and the HR staff told me that there were resources available for me,” Brown said. “I wanted the justification for why they picked me, but they couldn’t give me any.”

Brown said she knows of at least five other members of her department who were told they’d lose their jobs this week. She and other members of the faculty senate had previously pleaded with university officials to furlough them rather than cutting jobs.

“I don’t recognize this university,” Brown said. “I love this university, warts and all, but I guess I must’ve had my blinders on.”

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