I’m peeping from under my rock for a second, so please be gentle with me:
Can someone explain to me like I’m a 5 year old what is Trump doing that is freaking out higher education institutions so much? I hear grant money. What’s the status on that?
Please keep it as matter-of-fact as possible 🫣
Tom McC @jtr https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/18/trump-administration-schools-dei-programs-deadline
May be useful. It seems everything is getting axed in the USA.
Jefferson Burson Here's a quick summary for a few things I'm aware of:
- Trump executive order barring NSF grants from anything DEI-related
- the NSF initially froze its "in progress" grant reviews to ensure compliance with Trump's executive orders
- Now, the NSF is flagging existing grants that were identified by NSF or congressional committee as DEI-related. These flagged grants are candidates for getting their funding yanked
- Meanwhile, NIH put a cap of 15% on indirect expenses for both new and existing grants. for most modern research universities, this is way too low of a number and is expected to be quite disruptive.
Jefferson Burson oh and both the NSF and NIH are facing much larger budget cuts -- reducing the pooling of available funding -- even before you start talking about anti-DEI policies or indirect cost caps.
Jeff Martin @jtr In a nutshell: budget cuts.
Livelihoods that depend on budgets staying the same don't want to see massive decreases in funding. Especially with little time to prepare.
