Some universities are freezing hiring and laying off staff as Trump cuts federal funding

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Some universities are freezing hiring and laying off staff as Trump cuts federal funding

By CLAIRE RUSH
Updated 6:47 PM EDT, March 13, 2025

Universities across the U.S. have announced hiring freezes, citing new financial uncertainty as the Trump administration threatens a range of cuts to federal contracts and research grants. Some have announced layoffs.

Johns Hopkins University said Thursday it is eliminating more than 2,200 workers because of a loss of funding from USAID. Some employees are in Baltimore but most work in 44 other countries in support of the university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, its medical school and an affiliated nonprofit organization.

In February, the Trump administration announced deep cuts to National Institutes of Health grants for research institutions, a shift that could reduce the money going to some universities by over $100 million. Some schools already have shelved projects because of the cuts, which have been delayed temporarily by a court challenge.

Recently, President Donald Trump has shown appetite for targeting colleges’ funding more directly. His administration has vowed to take federal money from colleges that defy his agenda on issues including diversity, equity and inclusion programs, transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports, and student protests that he deems “illegal.”

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/college-jobs-education-department-nih-trump-antisemitism-af96e181e7958998a0fca0c8bb462b1e

[yardwork]

1. This is going to get a lot worse.

All the research universities in the United States are going to have to cut a lot of staff, because of the NIH cuts.

All health-related research in the United States is being destroyed. This is not an exaggeration. People think "it's just DEI." Well, the way Trump's crew is interpreting DEI, anything involving women's health, Black health, Latino health, American Indian health, Asian health, immigrant or refugee health, children's health - to them, it's all "DEI." Research involving AI - which inherently includes removing biases from AI - is now considered "woke" and has been cut.

All the innovative, cutting edge research that has been finding cures for cancer, children's diseases, Alzheimer's, ALS, every disease you can think of - all that NIH funding is being cut. And RFK, Jr. has cut overhead payments - which pay for the core labs, the statisticians, the lights, the facilities - to 15%, which will shutter all the labs.

In addition to the faculty researchers, the NIH funded the graduate students and post-docs that would have become tomorrow's scientists. They also funded an army of lab assistants, research staff, and project managers. Hundreds of thousands of people will lose their jobs. Work on these diseases will end, or it will move to other countries.

I assume that Musk is doing this because he expects all those scientists to come work for him. That won't happen. The pharmaceutical industry has no interest in spending billions of dollars on basic science that isn't guaranteed to yield a saleable product in their market plan. That's why the universities did it.

Since WWII, when this model was developed, American scientists working in American universities have saved untold millions of lives, worldwide, because of their discoveries.

Do you know someone who survived cancer? That's because of NIH funding and American research. Do you know someone who is living with HIV after decades? Did you get a COVID vaccine? Did you survive COVID? Do you have a child with cystic fibrosis who is surviving? Do you have an artificial limb or an implant or a stent? Did you survive a heart attack? Did you get cataract surgery? All of these and so much more are because of American research funded by the NIH.

They were just on the edge of solving the mysteries behind Alzheimer's, ALS, autism, and many other neurological diseases. The most brilliant people I've ever met, and the kindest.