Johns Hopkins University announced it was planning to cut more than 2,000 jobs after the Trump administration slashed $800m in grants to the renowned academic institution.
The funding for the positions had come from the US Agency for International Development, which the administration has gutted with massive cuts. A total of 247 domestic US workers and another 1,975 positions abroad in 44 countries will be affected by what amounts to the largest layoff in the history of the university.
The job losses will affect the university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, its medical school and its affiliated non-profit for international health, Jhpiego. The school of public health includes over 80 research institutions that focus on issues such as gun violence, maternal health, and the economic impacts of Alzheimer’s disease.
The grant elimination announcement comes on the same day that hundreds of professors, researchers and other staff with the school of public health held a rally meant to show support for “American scientists and science amid federal layoffs and cuts to research funding”, according to the Hub, a publication of the public health school.
“This is a difficult day for our entire community. The termination of more than $800m in USAid funding is now forcing us to wind down critical work here in Baltimore and internationally,” the university said in a statement shared with media.
Johns Hopkins receives the most federal research funding, and is the largest private employer, in both Maryland and Baltimore and employs more than 150,000 people, the university said in a statement to the Guardian.
Those who lost their jobs due to the most recent grant funding cuts will be given 60 days’ advance notice before they are laid off or furloughed, the statement continued.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who has taken a major role in the administration as the head of the so-called “department of government efficiency”, have sought to dismantle USAid. Both have spread conspiracy theories and misinformation about supposed rampant fraud and waste within the agency.
The Trump administration has canceled more than 80% of all the programs at USAid following a six-week review, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said on Monday. Johns Hopkins is also being impacted by the White Houses’ probe into dozens of US universities over pro-Palestinian protests.
Last week, the US canceled $400m in grants and contracts to New York’s Columbia University. The Trump administration is also seeking to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student who has played a prominent role in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia.
