[Politics] Anyone concerned their area of study (freedom to research/publish, funding from state & federal levels) will be affected by Trump administration?

[hermionegranger]

I am applying to I/O psychology programs with the hope of studying bias and discrimination in the workplace, and I am concerned about Trump's policy implications and potential withholding of funding from universities conducting research in this area. Anyone else have similar concerns? I imagine this is also applicable to other fields as well (natural sciences, biology, etc.)

Anyone currently in doc programs that have insight or perspective here?

[Amanda87]

Thanks for posting this. I am so worried about this administration. I'm applying to Master of Social Work programs and want to work with women who have been victims of domestic and sexual violence. The kind of non-profits and campus groups are funded in large part by VAWA, which is up on the chopping block currently. I'm not so worried I guess about being able to finish school, but maybe finding a job after. On the other hand, it makes me want to fight even harder to serve this population, especially as we may see changes to local police departments and their willingness or ability to help victims of violence. It's a scary time to become a social worker, but I think it's also an important time to do this work. 

Edit: I know this doesn't answer your question really, I just feel really strongly about this being an important consideration.

Edited January 30, 2017 by Amanda87
clarification

[Blackwater]

I think for the administration to dictate what kinds of social science studies become funded would be too specific and difficult. There may be an overall reduction in funding, but I don't see the current administration seeking to stop discrimination research. If your research concerns climate change or Islam then you may want to be concerned. The administration has not made any specific statement about defunding actual universities -to my knowledge.

[juhidee119]

Thanks for this thread. I'm very concerned, I applied to clinical psych programs to study resilience/coping in minority women. I don't know how soon it'll be but I suspect the administration will cut funding for sciences/research. Mental health services seem to always be on the chopping block first, so I'm afraid of what will happen. 

[FacelessMage]

I worry about two things with this administration:

1) international student visas: I didn't work over 5 years to get to this goal only to have some cheeto who's never had to work hard toward anything in his life destroy my dreams when he changes the rules about international student visas

2) my clinical/research work: I plan to work with/conduct research with offenders with mental illness. With Trump being elected, I can see a dual "tough on crime"/defunding of the CJS happening at the same time, and it worries me. 

[TakeruK]

7 hours ago, FacelessMage said:

I didn't work over 5 years to get to this goal only to have some cheeto who's never had to work hard toward anything in his life destroy my dreams when he changes the rules about international student visas

This is how so many current/finishing international PhD students are feeling too, when thinking about the future. Especially those near the end, traveling to international conferences is a big part of the networking that helps you find a job. Last Friday's executive order means that many of these students just got severely disadvantaged in their ability to find work anywhere (not just the US). Who knows what's coming next?

[OhSoSolipsistic]

I'm actually mixed about this, at least on the funding side of things in general. I know there's quite a bit of freezing and slashing of fed funds, but I have a suspicion that we're going to see a uptick in contract work overall. Which isn't necessarily bad - for 7.5 yrs, I was contracted through a state school for research at a fed agency and it was amazing - but the downside is more overhead, less employee protections, and greater ability for management abuse. There's a ton of that going on already in a bunch of different sectors, and it'll likely just get worse. But if you're not actually working for an agency, this administration might actually push more funding to non-fed organizations depending on your specific field, sector, and domain. How that'll get spent is another story.

Anyway, Grants.gov is a good source to poke around for fed stuff to monitor the status of grants over the next few months and to compare it with previous years. Mental health is divided into several different agencies depending on your specific field, and those agencies have employees who dole out the contracts and grants (some you wouldn't expect - a lot of I/O psych in FAA, and I think military). I can't remember now if other types of funding are also on that site, but contracts, cooperative agreements, etc. should be at least linked somewhere.

[Adelaide9216]

I don't live in the US but I feel concerned about what is happening to. I've heard that a lot of researchers are boycotting the US and canceling their participation to conferences and stuff like that.