Week 10
Figuring out what to focus on now & what next in science and higher ed
This newsletter is my part of an ongoing conversation among colleagues who’ve had a rough week. I share two or three pieces of the puzzle that feel are most important, hazard a guess about what to expect next, and offer at least one useful thing to do.
MEETING THE MOMENT: 2025-03-28
Hello friends,
Last weekend, I learned the basics of applying a tourniquet. It may be weird, but I admit I loved it. It was so interesting to (re)learn some anatomy and physiology, so cool to try different combinations of materials, and so satisfying to have an incredibly clear indicator of success. I’ve never deliberately stopped a pulse before!
Along the way, we also had a big conversation about how our bodies and minds react to shock. I am not particularly squeamish, but I experienced a few moments of distinctly visceral horror1 as we discussed the details of different scenarios. It is so humbling to accept the reality of these glorious, ludicrous bodies we inhabit. I find it somehow freeing to accept that we aren’t going to be able to fully predict or control how we react in a catastrophe. Whatever good we can do in those moments is good. Think about it: when things are at their absolute worst, any good is good.
That’s been keeping me going this week, which was, by the way, week 10. Let’s talk about it.
What’s happening now
After more than two months of writing these updates, I see the patterns in the chaos. I’ll write more about that soon, but I want to call your attention to it, and encourage you to name the emerging themes you see.
International students continue to be targeted for detention and deportation. Early Tuesday morning, ICE agents took University of Alabama PhD candidate Alireza Doroudi into custody. Doroudi is not charged with a crime. The university says it “has and will continue to follow immigration law and cooperate with federal authorities“. On Tuesday evening, masked agents arrested Tufts Fulbright scholar Rümeysa Öztürk in the street. Öztürk is not charged with a crime. The university says it had “no knowledge of this incident in advance, did not share any information with federal authorities prior to the event." Today, an as-yet-unnamed grad student from the University of Minnesota was taken by ICE, for reasons unknown. The university says that it “had no prior knowledge of this incident and did not share any information with federal authorities before it occurred”, and is “deeply disturbed.” The Secretary of State claims that he’s personally revoked more than 300 student and visitor visas for “creating a ruckus."2 The AAUP is suing the Secretary, President, and others for these ideological deportation efforts. Meanwhile, and separately, Federal Judge Brian E. Murphy ruled today that deportees do require due process, and temporarily prohibited the administration from sending people to third-party countries, like El Salvador.
The next wave3 of employment pain for civil servants is happening now. Federal employment has been hollowed out through a combination of layoffs and buyouts (the job still exists, it’s just no longer yours) and now is facing a large-scale Reduction In Force (the entire job is gone). Our best current estimate is that something like 2.4 million federal employees total have been impacted. Here is an excellent rundown of what we know so far. Some of the most notable updates include:
HHS is cutting its divisions and regional offices by about half and axing an additional 10,000 employees. This is harming millions of Americans, according to the American Association of Cancer Institutes, by disrupting patient care and clinical trials.
The IRS is set to lose approximately half its workforce. The unit that audits billionaires has already suffered disproportionate staff cuts (three times more than the agency average).
USAID had approximately 10,000 employees at the start of the year; it currently has 900. Agency emails went out today confirming that all but 15 will be gone by September. Meanwhile, a deadly 7.7 earthquake has killed more than 800 people in Myamar and Thailand. Previously, USAID would have deployed humanitarian assistance within hours. The administration claims aid will still be sent but cannot give a timeline.
I’m sorry for doing this to you, but the final bullet also has to be an updates omnibus.
On Monday, more than 600 Harvard faculty published a letter urging the University to publicly condemn and defy orders that interfere with its independence. On Wednesday, news broke that the university is forcing out the leadership of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Elsewhere, despite explicit support in the state senate, the University of Michigan abandoned its flagship Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion offices.
On the individual leadership side of things, Columbia announced that Interim President Katrina Armstrong “stepped down” today. FDA vaccine head Peter Marks has resigned over “subservient confirmation of misinformation and lies”. Meanwhile, Timothy Snyder (of On Tyranny) and two other prominent scholars of fascism are leaving Yale for University of Toronto.
On the research funding side, DOGE announced the termination of $420 million in NASA funding and contracts, and it’s rolling out with all the care and precision you imagine. HHS has “abruptly canceled” more than $12 billion in federal grants: the spreadsheet of terminated grants has gone from 14 to 42 pages. But there is some hopeful news to wrap up with. Sources are reporting that some grant funding for long COVID is going to be restored. Last week, Federal Judge Julie R. Rubin ordered the reinstatement of millions of dollars in teacher training and placement grants. And I’ve gotten private messages about certain grants being no longer terminated and instead moving into revision processes. I would love to see so many more.
What’s next
Saturday (March 29) is being called a global day of action. The nonviolent, decentralized Tesla Takedown protests are getting larger and more numerous each week - hundreds are planned all over the world this weekend. There’s a lot happening in the next week building up to an April 5 mass mobilization called Hands Off! that Indivisible is leading. Protesting can be incredibly energizing. I can point you at research about collective identity and sense of potential with crowds4 or you can just get inspired by the pure joy these Colorado students created in the face of hate.
What to do
Revisit your risk tolerance. We know now that the suite of risky behaviors is much larger than we might have thought before the word ‘ruckus’ was used as an excuse for imprisoning people thousands of miles away from their families and lawyers. Your strategy must be shaped by your own unique vulnerabilities and capacities. Be as thoughtful as you are brave.
For me, emergency planning is a coping mechanism. I find it massively comforting to confront my fears about a worst case scenario by leaning into the specifics. It’s why I loved the Stop The Bleed training I had last weekend, and am now working toward wilderness first aid training. It’s why when I was worried about wildfires as a new Californian, I worked through our local emergency preparedness resources. It’s why I downloaded the Defend & Recruit workbook. It’s why you might want to dig deeper into topics as specific as using Signal or responding to an NSF grant termination, or as broad as how and why to protest.
None of these might be exactly what you need most right now. You’ll have to figure it out - we all do. Together, we can turn our fears into fuel. Read up, think hard, learn scary new skills. And maybe, if we’re lucky, we can work ourselves out of the urgent need for them.
Liz
As ever, thanks for reading & thinking with me. Please share it with your people. This newsletter will always be free, but if you want to subscribe ⤵️
I’d only recently recovered from the worst seasickness I’ve ever experienced, so that vertiginous ~heave~ was way too familiar. All my years on boats, and I’d never been sick before. Good grief. The vomiting wasn’t even the worst part, but I can’t decide if it was the uncontrollable shaking, the loss of sensation in my hands, or the fight to stay conscious that was. Pure misery. To everybody coping with chemo, pregnancy, norovirus, and the like, I am so sorry. ↩
“Ruckus” does not appear in the United States Constitution or United States Code. It does, however, feature in The Breakfast Club. ↩
For those of us following along at home, this is round four by my count? 1: January firings of probationary employees (many of whom are rehired, um, sort of?); 2: February deferred resignation offer via “fork in road” email from OPM (not to be confused with “the five bullets” email); and 3: March voluntary early retirement. Federal friends, am I missing any? ↩
John Drury is on Bluesky and curates a starter pack if you’re curious about research on crowds and collective action! ↩