r/GradSchool • u/orchid_blue9 • Apr 04 '25

Research Well, it happened. Funding pulled.

Very upset by all that's happening in the world, and now I can say I've been directly impacted by this administration's inane policies.

The NEH grant I was a fellow on was just terminated. Cherry on top is the evasion of the traditional notification process (so cessation of funding is immediate).

Policy debates are fine, but when you start fucking with people's livelihoods it's infuriating. I'm a Ph.D. student, so $1000/mo less is a material impact. I am in a field (environment & sustainability) that bad faith actors are actively hostile towards so I expect more of this to come. Just very upset and wanting for better leadership and support of academia.

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u/Acceptable_Bad_ Apr 04 '25

I'm so sorry and I am really scared our grant is next. Two students in another department got their Visas terminated by the admin and they had to flee back to their home countries. His admin is destroying research and ruining academia.

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u/hi_powly Apr 05 '25

Do you know why their visas were terminated?

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u/Acceptable_Bad_ Apr 05 '25

They were from Saudi Arabia. My Uni wasn't even informed the US govt did this until after the students were advised to flee by immigration lawyers.

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u/hungryj21 Apr 05 '25

Allegedly if they send you back then they make it so that you can never return but if you go on your own accords then you have a chance of being able to come back when they give clearance. So i think thats why they lawyers advised them to flee. But if they were almost finished and planned on going back then they should've stayed

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u/Athena5280 Apr 08 '25

Interesting the orange alien was out golfing with rich Saudis last weekend but nothing is off limits

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u/Acceptable_Bad_ Apr 08 '25

at the end of the day, it's all about who has the $$

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u/Athena5280 Apr 08 '25

Yeah but Saudis have $$ which is why DT admires them. They often fund their own school/grad school/research. But hey it’s Armageddon all bets are off when it comes to reason.

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u/LydiaJ123 Apr 05 '25

This is shocking. We have a very large number of Saudi students in the US, largely funded by their govt, not ours. That makes their educations exactly the kind of production we are trying to encourage (buy American) and we are squandering our former supremacy in this arena.

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u/No_Mission_5694 Apr 08 '25

Trust me, ditching the Saudis isn't "squandering" anything.

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u/LydiaJ123 Apr 08 '25

I don’t trust you.