The Bureau of Relations with Businesses, Foundations and Government Relations of Grinnell College, which manages college subsidies, monitored and prepares closely for possible threats to federal funding reductions for its academic programs. The Grinnell College has not yet been affected by federal financing cuts.
Throughout the country, higher education establishments are under pressure from the loss of federal funding and the abolition of specific academic programs after the recent Cups by President Trump in various government programs, investigations on anti -Semitism and repression of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
“The college is actively engaged in scenarios planning,” said Ellen de Graffenreid, vice-president of communications and marketing.
However, De Graffenreid said that the college can only plan hypotheses at the moment and that the college’s response will vary according to the situation that Grinnell could be in the future.
Among the academic divisions of Grinnell, the college sciences are most at risk of being affected by the federal research cuts for research, said Andrea Tracy, a associate dean for student university life.
“Federal funding across college … is probably disproportionate to science,” said Tracy. “I would say that it is partly because scientific research requires more funding.”
Professor Shannon Hinsa-Leasure, biology, president of the scientific division of Grinnell, said that most of Grinnell’s scientific teachers are funded by the college itself and are currently able to obtain funding for their research.
“Most teachers here can do their research with the funding they receive from the college,” said Hinsa-Leaste. “These are just a few teachers who have external subsidies at the same time.”
However, some teachers with subsidies funded by the federal government are concerned about the implications of their research reductions.
The associate professor Idelle Cooper, biology, studys the mother’s speciation with a subsidy of the National Science Foundation. Although Cooper’s federal subsidy is intact, she said that she feared that changes in federal immigration policy complicate her plans to carry out research in Canada with students, which, according to her, was generally not a big problem.
“Now, it’s a bit uncertain, especially for students in the United States with visas,” said Cooper. “We never really know what kinds of things will be prohibited or changed.”
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Cooper and Hinsa-Leason said that Trump’s executive decrees targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs (DEI) also affect the process of requesting research grants funded by the federal government.
The candidates included a section on broader social impacts which included Dei problems, but Hinsa-Leaste said that it changes now.
“If I was asking for a grant right now, I should change things,” said Cooper. “I’m really happy that I’m in a place like Grinnell who supports Dei.”
Despite the possible threats to subsidies, from Graffenreid and Hinsa-Leasure said that the college supports teachers to obtain subsidy funding.
“We have good support here to help teachers think about how we could get funding,” said Hinsa-Leaste.
Grinnell’s Advanced Project Program (MAP), where students work with research project teachers, are probably not affected by reductions in federal research funding, said Tracy.
College, not federal agencies, finance the majority of cards. Tracy said the number of cards for the summer of 2025 is higher than in 2024.
Although funding discounts have not had an impact on Grinnell so far, Hinsa-Leaste and Cooper have said they were concerned about the future of American scientific research in general.
“I don’t think I have planned that science would go under the control and attack it has in the past three months, but it is essential for so many things we do,” said Hinsa-Leaste.
“I am particularly concerned about future subsidies and the future of the National Science Foundation as a whole,” said Cooper. “I try to be optimistic about it and go ahead as if science was normal … I hope there are more funded subsidies in the future.”