Duke to start layoffs in August after nearly 600 employees take voluntary buyouts
Nearly 600 employees at Duke University have accepted voluntary buyouts under a program initiated this spring amid significant threats to the university’s funding under the Trump administration, according to an email sent to faculty and staff on Friday.
Now, per the email, the university will make involuntary layoffs across campus in August.
“We determined that an involuntary reduction in force is necessary only after careful consideration and extensive consultation with leadership across Duke,” read the message from Duke Executive Vice President Daniel Ennis, Provost Alec Gallimore and School of Medicine dean Mary Klotman.
Ahead of the layoffs, all university units will be asked to identify further non-personnel budget cuts they can implement, which will “determine the scale of” the layoffs.
The message added that “fewer employees will be affected” by the layoffs given the “high number” of employees — 599, to be exact — who participated in the voluntary buyouts. More than 250 faculty are also considering offers for voluntary retirement incentives, per the message.
“We recognize and are sorry for the impact these changes will have on our colleagues,” Ennis, Gallimore and Klotman wrote.
Employees who are laid off will be notified between Aug. 5-19, per their message.
Duke faces threats to its finances
Friday’s announcement comes as Duke faces threats to its finances as the Trump administration has made major cuts to research funding and implemented policies affecting other university operations, such as increasing the tax rate on the endowments of Duke and other colleges.
To address the “actual and potential federal funding reductions” — as they were referred to in Friday’s message — the university has implemented a host of cost-cutting measures, including freezing hiring and other spending in March. Then, in late April, as the university told faculty it sought to cut as much as 10% of its budget, or roughly $350 million, the university announced it would offer buyouts to staff. Those efforts were furthered by another round of buyouts for faculty, announced last month.
“While the challenges before us are difficult, we are confident we can navigate them as a community and maintain exceptional support for our students, our world-renowned research and our core values,” Friday’s message read.
The largest employer in the Triangle
One of the country’s top research universities with a major health system, Duke employs more than 48,000 people across the Durham university. It is the Triangle’s largest employer and the second-largest private employer in North Carolina, behind only Walmart.
Duke isn’t the only local university grappling with the impacts of funding threats, though its buyouts and upcoming layoffs appear to be the most drastic response of schools in the Triangle. Salaries, hiring and other spending in the UNC System, which includes major research universities like UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State University, are currently restricted under a directive from system President Peter Hans enacted last month.
This story was originally published July 25, 2025 at 1:05 PM.
