Hello friends,
On Wednesday, I saw astronauts depart for the Moon. I hadn’t initially planned to watch: even though I was too little to see it in school, I’ll never forget the Challenger explosion.¹ But as the countdown approached three minutes, I decided to join.

The chat streamed past—a torrent of emojis—all rockets and hearts and crying faces. I kept noticing all the people simply posting, “I was here.” And for a few minutes, that was the most striking thing. We all were there, together, millions of us, witnessing the launch.

I also congratulated my friends and celebrated the arrival of three brand new humans this week. I have a few exquisitely quiet moments focused on the perfect smoosh of their tiny faces and contemplating where they’ll be when they’re my age. When I think about them, or the zodiacal glow² in a photo of Earth lit by moonlight, I feel a numinous awe.³

For just a few fleeting moments, we are all here, together, billions of us, creating history.
This was Year 2, Week 14. Eliza, Oscar, and Surya, this one is for you.

What happened in science & higher ed

• The White House has released its FY27⁴ budget request, and it’s ugly.⁵ Overall, it requests that military spending rises by 40%, and most everything else shrinks to accommodate. Climate, environment, and energy are targeted for some of the worst of it. EOS has bulleted toplines that I found grimly helpful.⁶ Science has an agency-by-agency rundown, but in brief, the administration has proposed a ‘mere’ $5 billion less for NIH (12.5% decrease from FY26) while both NSF and EPA face cuts that leave them with less than 50% of their current budgets ($4.8 billion cut from NSF and $4.6 billion cut from EPA). As I write this, the NSF’s live website actually says that this “reflects a strategic alignment of resources in a constrained fiscal environment while eliminating woke and weaponized grant programs that previously funded radical DEI projects.” And NSF leadership announced to staff this afternoon that they are dissolving the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) directorate.

• The Forest Service is being radically reorganized. High Country News describes confusion and concern about the chaotic, if not devastating, path ahead.⁷ The agency announced this week that they will shut down 57 of their 77 research facilities, close all nine regional offices, and relocate headquarters from Washington DC to Salt Lake City.⁸

• It’s hard to believe it’s been over a year now since DOGE layoffs began. After losing thousands of employees last year, the GSA⁹ is hiring for hundreds of positions. The FDA is also hiring. They are allegedly looking to replace 3,000 researchers, inspectors, and support staff. It would be nice if the FDA were able to produce its long-overdue financial conflicts-of-interest policy for advisory committee members or play its role in actually regulating things like injectable peptides. Over at the CDC, layoffs, resignations, and hiring freezes have gotten so bad that the agency can no longer help states perform testing for diseases like rabies and pox viruses.¹⁰ Agency documentation (PDF) also lists Marburg virus and filariasis among diseases that CDC recently stopped providing testing for.¹¹ The full list of unavailable tests is much longer.

• In a relatively small but critical-to-some-of-us change, the NIH is ending continuous submission, with final deadline of August 10, 2026. This flexible grant deadline was created as a benefit to PIs who serve on standing study sections, advisory boards/councils, or program advisory committees. If this affects you, see the newly updated late application submission policy

• And finally, in university news:

  • The Kentucky senate has passed a bill that allows state universities to easily lay off faculty for financial or political reasons.¹² Low enrollment in a major or “misalignment of revenue and costs” are poised to become sufficient grounds for individual termination, regardless of tenure, as well as closure of entire departments or majors. High enrollment courses are not immune to political pressure either.

  • The state of Florida just unexpectedly removed sociology from its 12 public universities’ core curricula.¹³ This is separate from last month’s news that professors at Florida’s 28 public colleges are required to use a state-sanctioned textbook and course curriculum framework if they teach sociology.

  • Judge Gerald J. Pappert has ordered Penn to hand over a list of Jewish people on campus to the Trump administration by May 1. The university intends to appeal underscoring that, ‘“The University does not maintain employee lists by religion.”

And what’s next

Do not give up. A new analysis of 60 key higher ed lawsuits from Inside Higher Ed counts 50 as having a prevailing party, with plaintiffs winning in 33 of them. Now, even if that methodology was flawless (it’s not) and perfectly predicts final rulings (again, no) much less compliance, lawsuits are not sufficient. But they are necessary! It matters that San Jose State and the UC system are suing the Department of Education over the administration’s egregious case that having a transgender woman athlete on a university volleyball team violates Title IV.¹⁴ Other things matter just as much. Two weeks ago, I asked, “What censorship efforts can you refuse?” Boston University faculty are answering on their campus by picking a fight over their pride flags. I thought this essay on why fascists hate sociology was brilliantly done. AHA¹⁵ just published a new guide to defending faculty tenure and due process. Since I started writing this post, I’ve connected with a postdoc who has a site already built to advocate against the dissolution of the NSF SBE directorate.¹⁶ Is your state on her list? What else can you do to take action that means something to you?

I opened this newsletter with a dedication to the newborns who have entered my life. Every week I write, I worry that perhaps I’m tracking the wrong issues and focusing on the wrong fights. I feel that even more intensely now, knowing that we stand on the precipice of an energy crisis like the world has never seen. And then I think about how this is also the first time when solar and wind power, and the batteries we need to make them work, might plausibly scale to meet the need. Renewable power is just about to reach 50% of the world’s electricity capacity. Rooftop solar is now Puerto Rico’s second largest energy source. A new reality is being born.

When I think about the future, I want more for them than just safety for all our babies, I want them to experience magnificent, mind-bending awe. I want whales and spaceships and libraries that feel like magic and make us forget that we can’t live forever. I want things I don’t even know how to imagine yet. I love that such dreaming is our solemn responsibility too.

We’ll dream and fight for you, little ones.

Liz

As ever, thanks for reading & thinking with me. Meeting the Moment will always be free, but if you want to contribute, you can ⤵️

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