Via Politico, this news:
One of the United States’ leading funders of science and engineering research is planning to lay off between a quarter and a half of its staff in the next two months, a top National Science Foundation official said Tuesday.
The comments by Assistant Director Susan Margulies came at an all-hands meeting of the NSF’s Engineering Directorate, according to two program managers who attended.
Marguiles, NSF and the White House didn’t respond to detailed questions about the layoffs and their potential implications.
“A large-scale reduction, in response to the President’s workforce executive orders, is already happening,” a spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management said in an email. “The government is restructuring, and unfortunately, many employees will later realize they missed a valuable, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in the deferred resignation offer.”
I don't have much to say about this other than the obvious: this is bad, real bad. Derek has a pretty comprehensive post that is, like so much these days, overtaken by events with this latest. Nevertheless, the last lines are good and important:
We are in a Constitutional crisis whether we like it or not, the worst of my own lifetime by far, and the more voices that are raised against it all, the better. That's what we can do for now. If it gets worse, it gets worse, and we'll revisit the topic, God help us.
But most of all, don't give in to cynicism or apathy. That's what the people promulgating these horrible policies want - a bored, indifferent public who figures that who cares, nothing matters any more, it's gonna happen no matter what. But it doesn't have to. Never forget that: it doesn't have to happen.
Best wishes to the scientists and engineers of the NSF, and to all of us.
The situation is very dire indeed. Scientists and engineers are a small part of the population. At the time that I got my phd, I believe there were about 3000 degrees granted in physical chemistry. Like many (most?) I trained to be a scientist, not to be a public relations or marketing expert. Yet our collective scientific professions needs to be shaping public opinion not just on technical matters but on the value of our product. We are not doing that. Our organizations like ACS who should be doing that are not. Our outreach efforts are small and misguided and mostly preaching to the choir. We need advertisememts that are short and simple. Take something people like and use, and say "all this started with funding from nsf in year x at institute y."
ReplyDeleteWe are so cooked as a society.
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking Derek Lowe's piece, it's an excellent summary. As someone working a federal lab, I wouldn't believe all this shit if I weren't living it.