The US is tensely awaiting a decision on whether or not the government will cut more than 1 trillion dollars to federal spending over the next 10 years. Known as sequestration, the budget cuts are planned to go into effect on March 1 unless Congress comes to a compromise or initiates some short-term fixes to put off the budget-cutting package, according to CNN.
Since Colorado State is a public university who receives its funding from the government, the sequestration has major implications for operations and maintenance. Thankfully, President Tony Frank updated the student body about what the university has planned in case the cuts are put into effect. In an e-mail on Feb 27, Frank wrote to students “We’re working closely with our federal Congressional delegation to share as much information as possible and understand all potential impacts.”
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One of those impacted areas is the Extention program, which provides data about issues including agriculture, energy, family life and other questions that the community wants answered. Sequestration will affect certain grants associated with the program as well as scholarships for the Agricultural Experiment Stations, which does research on agriculture and environment.
Frank said the AES’s VP Lou Swanson, Agricultural Sciences Dean Craig Beyrouty, and AES Exec. Director Lee Sommers are in D.C. now to meet with representatives.
The e-mail was an honest account of hardships that research and federally-funded laboratories will face, but tried to assure everyone that CSU is doing all that it can to prevent the university from being hit too hard.
This could be one of the most important of Frank’s notoriously long e-mails. It was a nice touch to see the university trying to stay ahead of the news and let students know what it is doing to keep up with the budget crisis.Ongoing construction, increasing enrollment and a highly competitive research atmosphere can all be impacted by these deep cuts in government funding and CSU needs to be wary.
