According to this article at politico, there was an all-hands meeting at NSF today (at least for the engineering directorate) where they were told that there will be staff layoffs of 25-50% over the next two months.
This is an absolute catastrophe if it is accurately reported and comes to pass. NSF is already understaffed. This goes far beyond anything involving DEI, and is essentially a declaration that the US is planning to abrogate the federal role in supporting science and engineering research.
Moreover, I strongly suspect that if this conversation is being had at NSF, it is likely being had at DOE and NIH.
I don't even know how to react to this, beyond encouraging my fellow US citizens to call their representatives and senators and make it clear that this would be an unmitigated disaster.
11 comments:
The same happened with all other NSF directorates today. Brush up on your Chinese.
I thought this was all about DEI. Could these individuals possibly have lied?
I think the tremendous danger is that these people don't really know or care to understand what NSF does and what the possible short-term repercussions are for the nation, its security, and its competitiveness. Not unexpected for over-educated but functionally stupid 20-something-year-olds.
Can't tell if you're being sarcastic or unfathomably naive.
Unreal. Incredibly short sighted even for the Trump administration.. without NSF funding, the efforts to expand US presence in research targets matching administration priorities fall apart. The semiconductor industry, energy, QIS, AI, ML, cyber security architecture, space science, even the military industry all fall apart.
I've been predicting an incoming American brain drain for a few years. I was hoping it wouldn't be sparked until after I graduate so I don't have to fight quite so hard to find positions, but I'm quickly losing optimism.
Anon@8:07, that is almost certainly sarcasm.
Prof. Natelson, doesn’t the Texas congressional delegation care about this?
And to add to this, there are initial moves to starve the department of education to death
I suppose the tree needed a shake, it will be interesting to see what falls out! Something clearly had to be done to deal with bloat, and the system is hugely inefficient…
Even if we agree with your premise, “shaking the tree” and “depopulating our scientific infrastructure” ought to be different activities.
It is a virtual certainty that mass layoffs in these agencies are illegal under all established precedents and laws. With that said, it is sadly not a safe assumption that precedents and laws will withstand the attacks the administration is making on our civil service. NSF, DOE, and NIH just within the science domain, but also DOJ, CIA, USAID and more elsewhere in the government.
As for what Anon @1:05 said, if you want to fix bloat (and I reject the premise there), pass a law to change things. This is not the answer.
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