Duke University to offer more buyouts, anticipates layoffs under funding threats

Brian Gordon, The News & Observer (Raleigh) on Jun 5, 2025

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In a video message Thursday, Duke University President Vincent Price said the private Durham school will offer new faculty buyouts ahead of likely staff layoffs in response to multiple federal funding threats under the Trump administration.

“We will, for the foreseeable future, have to be smaller — and do our work with fewer people,” Price said.

The second-largest employer in North Carolina, Duke announced its first voluntary separation incentive program on April 30, which gave eligible staff 45 days to accept a buyout. Faculty at the time were told Duke sought to cut as much as 10% of its budget, or roughly $350 million.

On Thursday, Price said eligible faculty will be notified within the next few weeks about additional voluntary retirement offers. “Within this landscape of significantly reduced funding, academic leaders will also need to give thought to the future shape of our faculty,” he said.

Price identified five separate federal actions since President Donald Trump retook office, some realized and others proposed, that have “dire implications” for the university. He listed cuts to research funding, threats to the school’s nonprofit status, limits on international students, reductions to financial aid programs, and adjustments to health care programs.

The university has received more National Institutes of Health funding in recent years than any other in North Carolina. However, since March, the federal government has terminated NIH grants at an unprecedented rate and slowed the standard approval process.

Duke is the Triangle area’s top employer, with more than 48,000 workers entering the spring. Statewide, only Walmart has more employees. Since March, the university has controlled costs by freezing hiring, eliminating empty positions, saving on administrative tasks, and halting new spending on construction and renovations.

The school declined to share how many employees have so far accepted buyouts through its voluntary separation program. Duke has also declined to share how much federal money it has received in 2025, and how this figure compares to the same point last year.

Duke and its endowment

Some have criticized Duke for its response to funding decreases. In a May 27 statement, the head of the American Association of University Professors, Todd Wolfson, noted the Trump administration hasn’t retaliated against Duke University in the way it has targeted other elite schools like Columbia University and Harvard University.

“This fact, combined with Duke’s $11.9 billion endowment, makes the decision to cut employee positions — from librarians to professors to housekeepers — especially mystifying.”

In 2023, Duke University had the No. 11 endowment among U.S. schools, according to U.S. News & World Report. However, schools are often bound to spend donations in narrow ways. In the medical field, for instance, gifts may exclusively link to certain physicians or initiatives.

“The endowment doesn’t save us,” Dr. Colin Duckett, vice dean for basic and preclinical science at the Duke University School of Medicine, told The News & Observer in February. “It isn’t something that can be used because someone decided that we’re just too rich.”

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