200 UTMB employees face layoffs due to million dollar budget gap over pandemic

UTMB says it could be forced to layoff at least 200 staffers to get back on budget.

Interim president Dr. Ben G. Raimer says they are facing a $174 million gap in the budget due to pandemic.

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"In spite of our multiple and collective best efforts to preserve jobs for all UTMB employees, we will be unable to do so heading into the new fiscal year," Raimer wrote. "My executive leadership team and I have reviewed programs, projects and employee positions across the university that we believe UTMB can no longer sustain. We anticipate approximately 200 positions, or 1.5% of our workforce, will ultimately be eliminated as we close the budget gap."

UTMB says notices will be going out in the coming weeks. In a letter announcing the layoffs, Raimer added that staff, whose positions are affected, will be given priority for current positions that must be filled.

"Our world was a very different place when I took the job as your President ad interim last September. No one could have predicted then the devastating effects of this pandemic and the difficult decisions that would follow," Raimer said.