The University of Texas at Arlington saw 234 employees from 96 departments and offices apply for buyouts, according to data obtained from a public records request.

All applicants who verified their eligibility and completed the required paperwork will be accepted, and there is no limit to how many buyouts the university can accept from each department, UTA spokesperson Jeff Caplan said in a statement.

The university does not yet know how much the buyout program will save or how much it will pay out to employees through the program, Caplan said. 

UTA employed 1,831 faculty members in fall 2023, according to a university reference book. In fall 2024, the school employed 3,117 nonstudent staff. 

In a January email to faculty and staff, President Jennifer Cowley cited changes at the federal level as reasons for offering buyouts. 

“There are challenges ahead,” she wrote. “Amid significant shifts in federal funding and policy, we must adapt — both to preserve funds that support our mission and to enable us to respond to future challenges.”

Difficulty obtaining visas due to federal restrictions and travel bans have led to a drop in international students — who often pay full tuition costs — at schools across the country.

UTA is also grappling with budget strain from a loss of federal grant funding, Cowley said in a September speech. The Trump administration has cut billions in funding for higher education, including money for research and grants that went to Hispanic-Serving Institutions like UTA.

The Arlington university joined others around the state and country that have offered buyouts in recent years as a way to address financial struggles.

Last year, more than 600 Duke University employees accepted buyouts as the private research university faced budget strain from a loss of federal funding and drop in international student enrollment. Layoffs followed.

The New School offered employees a buyout program in December to address years of budget shortfalls due to declining enrollment. In June, the private university in New York City is expected to notify some faculty and staff that they are being laid off.

The University of North Texas announced a buyout program in February amid a larger-than-expected $45 million budget shortfall. The large public university is grappling with financial challenges from fewer enrolled international students and less state funding. 

UNT also announced in March the elimination, merging or consolidation of 85 undergraduate and graduate degrees, minors and certificates.

Other efforts undertaken by UTA to lower costs include a hiring and salary adjustment freeze instituted in July 2025. 

Caplan also said in the statement that “the next step is targeted organizational adjustments, which allows UTA to realign structure, resources, and investments to ensure that we are delivering on our mission of academic excellence and student success.”

The university did not answer a question asking if layoffs are coming at UTA in time for publication.

In January, the Report filed a public records request for reports generated from June to early January that must be created when the university institutes a reduction in force or RIF. In a brief to the Texas attorney general’s office requesting that the documents be exempt from disclosure, a UT System attorney acknowledged that the university has taken steps to lay off employees.

“In this instance, information at issue consists of recommendations concerning the restructuring of a department, the elimination of specific positions, and the reallocation of services due to a lack of continuous federal funding and significant financial uncertainties,” associate general counsel Audra Gonzalez Welter wrote.

McKinnon Rice is the higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at mckinnon.rice@fortworthreport.org. 

The Fort Worth Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

The Report’s higher education coverage is supported in part by major higher education institutions in Tarrant County, including Tarleton State University, Tarrant County College, Texas A&M-Fort Worth, Texas Christian University, Texas Wesleyan University, the University of Texas at Arlington and UNT Health Science Center. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

This article first appeared on Arlington Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.