It's been a tumultuous week on college campuses, as President Donald Trump's push to pause federal research funding raised alarm bells among administrators and faculty at North Carolina's top research universities.
His decision to earlier today has not eased the anxiety and confusion on campuses.
It started earlier this week when Trump mandated federal agencies to temporarily pause all funding for activities related to "woke gender ideology, DEI, and the green new deal." This also included a halt on funding for foreign aid and non-governmental organizations. The pause did not impact Pell Grants or student loans, according to an .
The order was initially scheduled to go into effect Tuesday at 5 p.m., but a federal judge temporarily blocked it after several nonprofit groups filed a lawsuit.
Beth Moracco, UNC-Chapel Hill's chair of faculty, said the executive orders sent the research community into a state of "confusion, concern, and anxiety."
"There was a real scramble to try to figure out what was going on, particularly for ongoing studies," Moracco said before the order was rescinded. "I mean, imagine if you're doing a randomized control that involves a drug trial. Those types of activities can't stop on a dime, you know. To stop them would be extremely disruptive. In some cases, it would invalidate all the data and all of the activities that have already been conducted. So, it's not as simple as kind of pressing pause."
North Carolina's top three research universities 鈥� Duke, NC State, and UNC-Chapel Hill 鈥� collectively receive more than $2 billion annually in federal research dollars.
Duke topped North Carolina universities at , followed closely by UNC at nearly $800 million and NC State at about $416 million.
Including the rest of the public universities in the state, the number jumps above $2.18 billion.
In a Wednesday presentation to the UNC Board of Governors, Elizabeth Morra said federal research is an "important priority" for the UNC System. Morra is the UNC System's vice president for federal relations and serves as a liaison between the university system and the federal government.
"The UNC System is a research powerhouse," Morra said. "Advancing innovation in key areas such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and cyber security that help ensure the U.S. retains its status as a global leader."
This includes Moracco's own research. In addition to heading up faculty governance, she also directs the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center.
Trump's first vague order prompted a range of messages to Moracco from federal administrators. Moracco said some were recommending the center pause work on some of its studies, while others didn't know what the order's implications were.
"Even for the same researcher, you might be getting three different messages from different funders in terms of how to interpret the action," Moracco said. "It was a lot of meetings, a lot of people contacting other people, trying to figure out what's going on. It was extremely disruptive, and that kind of chaos is not conducive to doing good research."
Moracco's research is focused on gender-based violence prevention.
"The work that we're doing has direct impacts on survivors of violence and their families," Moracco said. "And abrupt pauses to that research can have implications for programming, for policy."
UNC's Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research advised faculty and staff to "continue working on projects as normal" and to report any messages about federal funding to the university. The school also set up a to share updates on the executive orders.
NC State set up a for its faculty. On it, the school linked to a statement from the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities that called Trump's executive orders "an overly broad mandate that is unnecessary and damaging."
"This action will sideline world-leading American scientists who are working toward cures for cancer, developing breakthroughs in AI and quantum computing, driving progress in advanced manufacturing, and supporting American farmers," .
"It will have far-reaching impacts in every corner of the country and hamper American innovation at a moment when it鈥檚 being fiercely challenged on a global stage," Becker continued. "OMB鈥檚 action has unnecessarily injected an enormous amount of confusion and uncertainty across the nation."
It's unclear what Duke University was planning in response to the now-rescinded executive orders. The university didn't immediately respond to an inquiry from 瓜神app.
Back at UNC, Moracco said if the order had gone through as planned, it would have likely created a "domino effect" on research. This, she said, would've harmed not only faculty conducting research, but also graduate students who depend on federal funds to pay their tuition and communities that benefit from the findings.
"The research that is being conducted at UNC, it's lifesaving," Moracco said. "It employs North Carolinians. It contributes to the state economy. And it's not something that you can just start and stop. It's hard to overestimate how important research is to Carolina and to the state and to the world."
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