By james art 
“I don’t know where all this goes,” McCulow told the Faculty Senate this week.
Trump Administration Memorandum for Federal Finance freezing cancels
The Trump administration has canceled a note to freeze federal funding in all agencies, which critics call non -constitutional.
- FSU President Richard McCoulow says the university can lose up to $ 65 million due to potential reductions in federal funding encouraged by President Donald Trump.
- McCullough expressed concern about the potential impact on research and grant funding.
- He advised the faculty to adapt applications for grants and emphasized the university’s efforts to deal with the situation.
As the reduction of federal funding can be on the horizon in higher education, the overall message of Florida University President Richard McCoulow to the Faculty is that FSU rolls with the blows while trying to be as “adaptive” as possible.
If the reductions in grants and cancellation become a reality, the university can suffer up to $ 50 million, he said. In the least case, up to $ 65 million.
“I don’t know where all this goes. I remain hope that part of this activity will be changed in the future, but we are still waiting to see how everything will be played, “McCulow said this week.
He turned to the recent financing of the uncertainty of the Virtual Faculty of Senate on Wednesday afternoon, which came as an effort to reduce all federal aid, which could contradict US President Donald Trump’s recent orders, including the termination of diversity, justice and inclusion (dei) programs.
“Of course, I definitely disagree with the cancellation of research,” said McCulow, “especially the impact of reducing the amount of money that comes into scientific research because I think this will lead to a huge difference in our country.”
Trump’s executive orders of January 20 consist of various government changes that came with the recent threat of federal assistance and include “termination of radical and wasteful government programs for DEI and preferences.”
Florida has experienced some of the expected changes when he looks at Dei, which has long been a specific goal for governor Ron Ron Zanthis and critical concern, as programs associated with him have been dismantled from colleges and universities throughout the country.
But the possible federal funding at the national level is relatively new.
How is FSU influenced by possible federal financing cuts?
All universities with federal funding have already received stop work orders, which immediately suspend all activities on specific sites and projects until further notification for DEI activities. Currently, the FSU has 11 specific projects that are on the pause as a result.
Of these 11, nine are with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), two are with the National Health Institutes (NIH), and one is with the National Forest and Wildlife Foundation, said FSU Vice President for Studies Patterson during a presentation In the virtual meeting on Wednesday.
“There have been many effects on federal funding in the last month,” Patterson said. “We pay attention to this, but we also work with other universities to understand what they are doing and to turn to people in our networks.”
Recently, National Health Institutes have announced plans to set a 15% restriction on the overall financing of the university’s “indirect expenditures”, which include funds for laboratory space, teachers, equipment and utilities. But a federal judge gave a temporary restraining order that stopped these abbreviations.
Currently, FSU has an approved indirect rate with NIH of 54%; Its national laboratory with high magnetic fields or Maglab has a percentage of 58.5%, according to Patterson. While the impact of NIH Cut is still inventing, the university can potentially lose up to $ 15 million because of it, according to McCullough.
Besides the Nih Cuts, McCullough Believes The Bigger Impact of the Possible Federal Funding Changes Would Come From the Pause and Cancellerations of Grants, Which Could Lead Toers Has Some Single Grants That Are $ 7 Million To $ 10 million.
“We are definitely a hit on some of these things,” McCulow said, adding that his best assumption is that the university will lose 10% of its grants for research.
A breakdown of the Federal Federal Research Source of Federal Research last year – where the university had a total of $ 204.5 million expenses from federal sponsors – shows $ 60.7 million from it coming from the National Scientific Foundation.
About $ 67 million of total costs came from the US Department of Health and Human Services Funds (HHS), where 94% of it funds NIH. Despite the possible impacts, Patterson encouraged teachers to continue their work related to grants unless they receive specific notifications about DEI.
“I want to be real for things and take the challenges one step at some point, but I also do not want to focus so much on what has not yet happened that in the meantime we miss some really great opportunities.” said Patterson.
McCullough advises teachers to be ready to change the language in their applications for grants and re -admission, moving forward, suggesting that they focus on the “broader” impact of their research when submitting proposals for grants.
FSU Faculty turns to fears about federal funding
During the meeting, several lecturers shared their concerns, including Associate Professor Tares Gravant, Director of Graduation of Rhetoric and Composition at the FSU English Department. She requested an idea of people with scholarships related to the humanities, unlike the grants.
“I have no information that would have assumed that as a major concern at the moment,” Patterson told Grampa. “Every day wears a different set of questions, challenges and opportunities, but at the moment … I am not familiar with immediate threats to these programs.”
Biology Associate Professor Catherine Jones asked if there were reactions from elected representatives about changes in funding and their effects on local areas.
Although McCulow said his team had contacted many people while watching the changes, he did not confirm whether they were related to local representatives. But he said he asked Florida’s state university system to take over the federal matter of funding instead of individual universities: “I think their voice would be more powerful than ours.”
“We don’t know where this will end,” says Greg Stanwood, Assistant Professor of FSU at the University Medical College, “but we know we can’t wait and just let him influence us without reacting the path together.”
“Disturbing time” for universities
In addition to federal funding, McCullough also briefly touched on the topic of immigration, as Trump’s efforts include executive orders to break into illegal immigration and to initiate mass deportation of untouched migrants.
McCullough has addressed fears about the potential presence of US Immigration and Customs Application (ICE) on the FSU campus. “To the best of our knowledge, we have not seen such activities in Florida and we hope they will let us know if that will happen,” he said, adding that he would continue to monitor the situation.
“This is definitely an interesting time, but all I can tell you is to keep calm, continue, and we will go through it in some way,” McCulow told Faculty, where nearly 100 people were in the virtual conversation.
As for the uncertainty of federal funding – which he described as “disturbing time” – he says his team also works with Florida’s legislators to do what he can, but the process is slow.
“It is difficult to know if this is the first throw of the baby with the bathroom water,” McCulow said. “Maybe in a week, someone will understand that the baby has left the bathroom for a while and will bring the baby back into the bath. We hope it is. ”
He added: “We will survive all this forward. We need to fight (efforts) in order to get rid of the great science we make in this country, and the best way to fight is to continue to do what we do. “
Contact Tarah Jean at tjean@tallahassee.com or follow it at X: @tarahjean_S