Last month, scientists and academics watched in horror as federally sponsored research disappeared from the Internet. Dr. Jennifer Jao is a professor at Northwestern’s School of Medicine. She says she knew the new administration would try to “trim the fat.”
JENNIFER JAO: WE DIDN’T REALIZE IT WOULD FEEL SO MUCH LIKE BLUNT AMPUTATION.
Jao studies HIV in women and children at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Her work is federally funded and often benefits the African communities she studies. This conflicts with Trump’s so-called “America First” initiatives. But she says that people don’t realize that what she learns abroad directly benefits us back home.
JAO: TRYING TO BE ISOLATIONIST IN OUR SCIENCE MAY ACTUALLY COME BACK TO HARM US.
Linguistics PhD candidate Cassie Davenport relies on a federal research grant to fund her dissertation on how gender biases impact language processing. She recently had to change a word in her study’s title to reduce the risk of defunding.
CASSIE DAVENPORT: THEY’RE SCARED OF GENDER, SO THEY CHANGED IT TO SOCIAL.
But it’s not a perfect fix.
DAVENPORT: CHANGING THIS WORDING FEELS LIKE A HACK, BUT AT LEAST MY PERCEPTION OF IT IS IT DOES STILL, LIKE, PREVENT YOU FROM DOING LIKE THE PROJECT FULLY THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE LIKE INTENDED.
She says the government is using funding to control researchers.
Meanwhile, a group of Northwestern faculty is rallying to give the community answers. On Thursday, they hosted a forum moderated by Journalism Professor Peter Slevin.
PETER SLEVIN [ON-TAPE]: THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION AS YOU KNOW IS TARGETING SOME OF THE UNIVERSITY’S MOST IMPORTANT WORK, AND TOGETHER WE’RE TALKING ABOUT A GREAT DEAL OF MONEY.
1.1 billion dollars. That’s how much Northwestern spent on research in 2023. Sleven says it could soon face multi-million dollar research cuts.
University officials did not respond to request for comment.
For Medill Reports, I’m Juliet Allan.
