By Wilbert Ramirez, Politics reporter
A flurry of executive orders having been made by President Donald J. Trump since his inauguration on Jan. 20 has led to confusion and fear among students/researchers and principal investigators at Virginia Tech regarding the freeze on federal grants towards higher education institutions.
Why it matters:
- Research is predominant part of Virginia Tech, a designated R1 university, the highest designation for research universities, with 4,000 plus researchers and $453.4 million in sponsored research expenditures in 2024 according to Virginia Tech.
- “There may be questions that are raised from the various orders and memorandum that come in. So, we try to understand what it what the impact will be at Virginia Tech and then as information and an understanding comes in, we communicate that back to the university”, said Mark Owczarski, Interim Vice President of Communications and Marketing and Chief Spokesperson for Virginia Tech.
Misconceptions about the Executive orders:
According to the Federal Student Aid Office of the U.S. Department of Education stated, “Federal student aid funds (for example, Direct Loans and Pell Grants) were not impacted by the initial guidance, and we continue to award and disburse federal student aid.”
How is it impacting students and researchers:
According to student researchers who requested anonymity to speak freely without fear of retaliation, many are worried about funding suddenly being cut if the content their research does not align with Executive Order 13985 that stated,
- “Terminate, to the maximum extent allowed by law, all DEI, DEIA, and “environmental justice” offices and positions (including but not limited to “Chief Diversity Officer” positions); all “equity action plans,” “equity” actions, initiatives, or programs, “equity-related” grants or contracts.”
- “With the list of words that the National Science Foundation released they are flagging grant applications now, but it’s stuff like “trauma,” “multicultural, “advocate” and it’s like how you do even do social science?” said a psychology student and researcher at Virginia Tech whose research project is focused on substance abuse on LGBTQ+ young adults’.
- “We were told last week that the State Department pulled the program, so Dr. Hodges and our team leads told us, ‘hey just keep doing what you’re doing but as of right now,’ said an international relations student and researcher from the Diplomacy Lab at Virginia Tech, who also asked to remain anonymous fearing retribution against his fellow researchers. “This is literally useless, we’re just doing it in the hopes that they would accept it by May, which I have extreme doubt they will because I don’t see why they would.”
What university administrators have said and done:
- “We are following the situation closely and reaching out to our congressional representatives in Washington, D.C., to express our deep concern about this decision and its potential effect on our university and our nation’s long-term viability as a science and technology leader,” said Tim Sands, president of Virginia Tech in an official message.
In response to the dynamic and rapid changes caused by the executive orders, the university created a page that offers guidance to those with questions regarding research and updates on the “Federal Agency Updates” page.
- “It’s going to evolve, and we recognize that this community is vested into this, and so as we figure out things, and as the landscape externally changes as well, some things have been rolled back. Some things might be in the courts. Some things will be changed because of additional directives or instruction,” Owczarski said. “What we do know is we are committed to communicating, we are committed to research. We’re not going to just say we’re done, it’s who we are, and it’s challenging.”
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